We don't have to pretend to be Canadian anymore!

During the last eight years, as expats we have on occasion had to claim citizenship other than American, and given our appearance and language, found Canadian to be the safest and most convenient. No offense intended to our Canadian friends, but maybe now we can admit to being American without embarrassment or risk. The election of Barack Obama gives us new hope for our country, and its place in the world. We now have hope for an end to the artificial divisions conjured up by partisan manipulators and hatemongers; hope for dialogue with our foes, and therefore negating the need for preemptive military actions; hope for renewed respect for the value of education, science, and art; hope for restoring the rule of law as written in the Constitution, not as interpreted by sycophantic ‘wannabes’; hope for the elevation of ethics and moral behavior in government and corporate America (tho this may be Great Expectations!); and hope for an improved perception of our country by the rest of the world- one based on the good that we do, and an end to the bad and the ugly. This may be asking a lot of one man, but this one man has already achieved much in breaching the hurdles of our culture. His accomplishments have given us the opportunity to dare to be optimistic. My biggest hope is that we are not asking too much.