Absen T. Palmer

In a dingy bag, mixed in with other diplomatic mail, sat our absentee voting ballots. Over the Atlantic to D.C., then off to the Boone County Clerk’s office to be counted today (we hope). We dropped them off a couple weeks ago at the US Embassy here. We had to pass through a security check, be escorted (2 at a time) to a room where we handed our ballots through a window to a pleasant Kosovar who joked about Julia’s Cuban heritage (we had to show our passports). Our adventure lasted 15 minutes…never saw an American.

Fortunately we haven’t had to deal directly with the political posturing, wardrobe attacks, UNBELIEVABLE promises and slapstick media coverage that accompany every presidential race. The amount of time and money spent on marketing deceit is condescending. Yet, there are checks and balances in our democratic society. Our government is run with a fair amount of transparency...well...translucency. People can be informed and active if they choose to be.

Here the government struggles against corruption. The EU supervision is coming in, and the UN supervision is going out. A government “in limbo” one magazine calls it. Checks and balances don’t work yet. One KFOR (Army) chaplin mentioned to me that he feels it will eventually take a massive statement from the people (there are only 3 million) to get leadership to govern for them, not themselves.