Hi Dr. Anna,

How are things going, apart from the prospect of a "mandate" for President Bush? Yes, the election didn't go so well. Instead of Democrats losing because of a Supreme Court ruling, we lost by 100,000 votes in Ohio. But the Red Sox won.

The red state/blue state divide is most perplexing for me, I think, because that is where I was born and raised (western Iowa), yet I have little understanding as to why the people my parents go to church with hate liberals and gay people, love war and the reactionary right, and are willing to go to the polls for said issues.

Oh, one more thing:  I just wanted to let you know that there's a Harlem Renaissance expert here, and he teaches _Their Eyes Were Watching God_, _Passing_, and James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. I'm not planning on being in his class, as I'm still searching for the lit that I like like, but this is a bit of "syllabus justification" for you.

And on the election, Moby has a place where he posts journal entries:  http://www.moby.com/index2.html

This is the one that is funny.
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can someone remind me why secession is not an option at this point?
i mean let's be realistic, we live in a divided country.
can't we have the breakaway republics of 'north-east-istan' and 'pacific-stan'?
wouldn't the red states be happier without us?
we could still travel freely and trade freely with them, but can't we just leave?
then you could have 3 countries:
northeastistan
pacificstan
redstateistan

one other option would be for us to all join the republican party en masse and make it socially liberal and fiscally conservative(as opposed to it's current 'socially puritanical/fiscally insane' status).

ok, it's done.
john kerry has seceded.
if you need us, my friends and i will be drunk for the next 4 years.
-moby