gobama...

We are not often given to political expression here at incidence, but in light of recent events...

For the past eight years we have felt the oppression and darkness of America envelope the world like a malevolent and evil cloud. I have felt the blood and slaughter, the brutality and horror, all the unleashed greed and corruption and mindless insanity, as though living a nightmare from which there is no waking.

I am ashamed of being an American. Living abroad, I am ashamed of my own passport, the confession of my identity, the guilt of my nationality. I am ashamed of this country and of having anything to do with it.

I don't like being in this situation. I bitterly resent it. I utterly despise the mutant American regime that got us into this mess, and all those who elected it and all those who have continued to facilitate it.

Sadly, I had grown to believe that I would personally not live to see the end of this nightmare. I felt the American descent was irrevocable, interminable. The destinies set in motion seemed so fundamental, so thorough and far-reaching, of multi-generational duration. It was as though the insatiable hungers of the American Way would only be satisified by the total annihilation of the planet.

That is why it seems so amazing and somewhat miraculous now to find some glimmer of light on the horizon. I try not to have any illusions, but the Obama candidacy feels transformational and historic. It feels like we might finally be turning a corner. It feels like we just might have a chance to get our country back after all, and that I may live to see the day.

God I hope so.

Photo by Teshka.

Lomé, Togo, June 2008.

Rolleiflex MX (type 2) Xenar, Neopan 400.