You love NYC and the USA because you can have lunch and talk to a Croatian girl and a girl from Kenya and a boy from the Upper East Side, and it makes you think of your grandparents.

Have you tried explaining elections to people who didn’t grow up in a country with a rule of law? And elections not rigged and people who weren’t thugs running the place? And election night parties that, however hard fought, are fun and you end up liking the person you bitterly fought against?  And, you trust the outcome? And you eat bad sandwiches and enjoy them because you are exhausted, but safe?

They kinda laughed at me for taking it for granted. Which I wasn’t.  For not having to pay bribes to crooked officials and such. Actually, the Croatian girl got a bit pissed off even talking about it.  You end up apologizing.  Just cause, to paraphrase Aaron Sorkin, paraphrasing someone else, the apology is the price you pay for being alive, rich, and free, all at the same time.

Happy election day.  Oh, my grandparents.  Here’s an image of workers in Crabtree, PA. They are walking out of town to a union meeting.  They had to leave town because the company owned all the property in town and so they met at a farm outside of town. And, sometimes they got in fights there and back. Just saying, we don’t take it for granted.