Pensieve-ing my post-election thoughts...

There are a lot of thoughts swimming around in my brain following Tuesday's historic election, ranging from "Hooray!" to "Boo!" to "Meh." Here are some, in no particular order:

Pros:

• It's over! Finally, maybe my morning NPR listenings will contain more about the economy than which candidate says the other has been unanimously voted Most Likely to Deep Fry Babies and Eat Them with Honey Mustard.
• Perhaps this is entirely blasphemous, but the whole "black" thing didn't matter to me all that much. As in, I guess it never seemed that far-fetched to me. I'm now more inclined to think I am just blessed with the people I'm around, to whom skin color is really just not that big a deal. Unless they're jealous of someone else's tan. That said, I think it's awesome that we finally have a president of this amazingly melting-pot-alicious country that's not a balding white male. Just male. And we'll see how long he lasts without the balding.
• Sara Palin will now be free to take up the SNL post of Sara Palin as Tina Fey as Sara Palin. (And won't be VP. Hallelujah! And seriously, as my mom says, can go take up acting or something about which she knows more than the average 2nd grader. And did I mention she won't be VP?)
• I'm interested to see what we can accomplish globally with foreign leaders feeling blatantly more friendly right about now.
• I'm excited to see Pres.-elect Obama garner some of that "experience" about which so many are concerned. I look forward to seeing him use his past perspective in his youth and collegiate years for the good of the country.

Concerns:

• I'm definitely not psyched at the prospect of having a Democratic Congress and executive branch. I generally think that's a bad idea, but I particularly think so in this type of economic climate. Let's hope they don't make any impetuous decisions that we'll all later regret.
• I'm sad that the recent history of the Republican party severely got in Sen. McCain's way.
• I hope we are able to curtain spending instead of letting it burgeon. I hope we give capitalism the resources it needs and let it do its job.
• I hope we cut our new president some slack and give him time to fulfill his promises.
• I hope we are not rash about how we approach the wars.

Other Thoughts:

• I've heard a ton of people in the last few days say things along the lines of "This is the first time I feel like an American!" or "America has betrayed me. I'm moving to Canada."
• First off, as if moving to Canada is going to help! You certainly didn't see either candidate getting fed up and taking off and giving up. Seriously, it's selfish and immature on either side to be like, okay, "something's happened that I don't like so I'm going to take off," or "this is awesome! I'm only staying because of this". Too many people have struggled to make this country better, and continue to do so each day, for us to just expect everything to be perfect and to give up when it's not. Perhaps we should be willing to sacrifice just a smidgen of what others have...
• Secondly, America as an entity is not about one single president - he or she shouldn't dictate whether you feel like an "American." Really, it's not even just about the people (though it does COME from the people); it's about principles. It's about values. It's about what we've stood for in the past, for what this nation was founded, and for what it continues to stand. Seriously, I really dislike fair-weather patriots. [Stepping off soapbox.]

For what are you most excited/unexcited?