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I dearly love Canada, but I love my country, the United States of America, even more. There is no way I will leave my country short of an immanent threat to my life and/or liberty.
I'm not going. I'm staying here.
I will fight for liberty, democracy, justice and civilization.
That's "fight" as in work, struggle, vote, argue, build, advocate, convince, combine, plot, bicker, strive and fight some more.
And furthermore, I don't believe that Americans are "sheeple". The very word sheeple comes from the right wingers' own lexicon of cynicism. I do understand that many of my fellow citizens are misinformed, bamboozled, and otherwise in error -- but sheep? Never!
They are my friends, my neighbors, the teachers who taught me to read and reason and engage the world, the girlfriends whom I've loved and fought with and happily bedded and long wept over, the cops who've saved my ass on more than one occasion, the bosses who gave me a decent break and paid me a decent wage, and the soldiers who risked their lives to make this country a place worth living in and dying for. (As for the folks who "done me wrong", well, I figure that anyone can make a mistake.)
That's way too many people for me to let down.
So the vote hasn't gone quite the way we'd have liked it to. It's a setback, not the end of the world. It means that we have to lick our wounds, figure out what went wrong, and rejoin the fight.
I've wimped out on far too many occasions in my personal life. But when it comes to America, the stakes are bigger than just me. I don't intend to just roll over and let them take over.
So, Canada, thanks for leaving a light on for me, but don't make up the guest bedroom on my account.
I'm staying in the fight. Count me in.
--bkl
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