Reader Responses #1

We've received some pretty amazing comments in recent days, so I thought I would share them with you all on our main page. It's great to read all of your responses, so keep them coming!

--
from E. in Argentina:

So I'm in Argentina right now (still.) I've been here since July, and it's been so strange and surreal to be so far away from all of the action this fall - especially since it was my first time voting in a presidential election (albeit by absentee ballot, which I sent in about a month ago since the Argentine postal system is nothing if not unreliable.) Anyway, I spent last night with a group of 10 or so American students, crammed into my friend Chris's tiny apartment in a shady neighborhood in Buenos Aires so that we could take advantage of his access to CNN International, broadcast in English - because watching Obama speak re-dubbed via simultaneous translation into Spanish doesn't have nearly the same effect. It was around 2.30 a.m. here when CNN called the results, and Obama's speech ended by around 3.30 our time.

The thing about Argentina (much of Latin America, really,) and especially the student culture at the public universities here (super, super radical, leftist, etc. etc. everything people claim that Brown students are but they're actually not,) is that they're not all too fond of the U.S., and understandably so, given the past 8 years. As an American abroad, prior to last night, I've often felt kind of ashamed of my country when talking to cab drivers or Argentine students at the University of Buenos Aires. To admit that you're from the States is almost like a taboo sometimes.

But last night changed that. For the first time since I've been down here, I honestly felt so incredibly, incredibly proud to be an American, and to have taken part in this historic moment. America really came through last night, and that's something that I know I can be proud of, and that the radically cynical Argentine students can't take away. Sure, we might not be as socially progressive as some of the recently-elected Latin-American governments, but last night, we did something right, and there's no questioning that.

BUT all does not sit entirely well with my American pride. The CNN international broadcast only covered the results of the presidential and congressional elections, and offered zero coverage of the status of the various ballot initiatives that were on the table yesterday, so it wasn't until I arrived home at 4.30 a.m. that I found out via my boyfriend via Skype that all of the anti-gay ballot initiatives in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas had passed. Needless to say, it was a difficult moment. So I guess the problem that I'm facing now is that I want so, so badly to be proud of America, but I feel like I can't entirely give myself over to the overwhelming sentiments I felt last night. Waking up this morning and facing those realities - the right to marriage taken away in California, the right to adopt eliminated in Arkansas - makes it hard to fully stand behind my country right now, as much as I would like to. I'm hopeful for the our future under Barack, and last night, from 5000 miles away, I felt more pride and more a part of our country than I ever have before, but at the same time I can't help but feel like I'm being excluded, like America doesn't want me or the gay community to take part in this moment. For me, last night was both an incredible victory and an incredible loss.

I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm proud, but conflicted right now.