Change is Good?

I've been feeling a total sense of relief today after yesterday's elections, having experienced a fair amount of anxiety for several days, thinking about all the what if possibilities. So, as I sit here listening to the folks on evening television rehashing the results of yesterday's vote and speculating as to what may or may not happen, I can only hope, like so many other Americans, that some sort of change, even the beginnings of change, will become evident very soon. If not, alot of people are going to be feeling ripped off by their new representatives in Washington.

Clearly, people all across the nation have spoken. It's time for change in a big, big way.

Just today the United Nations approved a resolution, for the fifteenth year in a row, urging the United States to lift the economic embargo imposed upon the nation and people of Cuba. Yes, here I go again. At a time when everyone else's attention is focused on what's going to happen in Iraq, I'm thinking about Cuba. All but five member nations voted for the UN resolution. Voting against it (along with the United States, of course) were the two teeny tiny South Pacific nations of Palau and the Marshall Islands (total combined population of around 80,000 people), both of which are virtually entirely dependent upon American assistance to keep them afloat, no pun intended. Oh, and Israel. Micronesia, another island nation heavily dependent upon my tax dollars and yours but apparently with a U.N. representative who has slightly larger balls (and slightly more viable fishing and tourism industries) than those of Palau and the Marshalls, abstained from voting on the resolution. At any rate, I've already written to my freshly reelected U.S. House Representative, Marcy Kaptur (again), and to my newly elected U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown, urging each of them to act as quickly as possible to see that the Cuban embargo is lifted. I won't hold my breath, though.

The euphoria I was feeling after yesterday's votes were tallied is already waning. I won't hold my breath for much change anywhere else, either. We'll just have to wait and see.