"You Choose" 2008

I have begun to feel as though every blogger in the world has posted at least one, if not numerous, posts about the upcoming United States elections. I have begun to feel as if, to qualify as a "legitimate" blogger, I too much join the masses and make my views known. So I submit. However, staying true to its roots as a travel blog, the candidates' positions on traipsing the globe may appear....
"You choose." It sounds like a commercial for American Idol. But alas, it is the name YouTube has give its collection of election videos. True, as citizens of the United States, we do have the right to vote and essentially choose who becomes our president (at least those of you over 18 do). But in no other age have the elections been so based - or biased, depending on your view - on our candidates histories and so ignorant of their political views.
Based on the media's reports on Sarah Palin, I know more about her family and her hunting hobbies than about her specific views on foreign policy, health care, or taxes. Shouldn't these issues matter? My father waved the most recent issue of Newsweek - with a flattering photo of Palin with a gun slung over her shoulder gracing the cover - at me during dinner, declaring that our country needed someone with a small-town background, someone who could really relate to the "average American", someone who was an average American. (Note: I use the term "American" with regrets. This term should technically refer to all people living in North, Central, and South America, but the English language has yet to develop a term to apply specifically to people from the United States. At times like these, I wish I were writing in Spanish.) And in fact, Palin may best represent the average American's travel record; she applied for and received her first passport just last year, and has been to Canada, Alaska's closest neighbor, only once. This is in par with the fact that only about 20% of Americans own passports. But do we really want someone in office who is the "average American" in this respect? After travelling internationally three times, I feel like my views have been influenced greatly by this experience. One thing I have learned is that Americans are viewed as rather ignorant of the rest of the world, with their monolingual tendencies and limited desire to travel to countries other than on gas-guzzling cruise ships. I personally believed that an experienced traveller would be a very qualified president.
Obama has been criticized by many for mentioning in his Democratic convention speech his desire for a more bilingual education. Obama admits that he is monolingual, and says that he is "embarrassed" and wishes he'd learned more than "a little bit" of Indonesian during his years there. I believe that the United States is no longer the world's exclusive major powerhouse. Even if we were, being able to successfully communicate with both our friends and "enemies" is essential. Perhaps a president who is at least semi-fluent in Spanish would be a good start to improving our poor relations with Central and South America; perhaps an Arabic- or Farsi- speaking president could actually gain some insight from trips to the Middle East. (By the way, how many Americans know what language is spoken in Iraq or Afghanistan?) I think more language education (in English and foreign languages) - better education in general - would greatly benefit this country. Obama also voiced his opinion that education should be less test-focused...something I couldn't agree with more!!