How This Volatile Election Is Hitting This Multi-National Home
Today is the day before the storm.
In this house, only two are American citizens, and only one is of legal age to vote.
I am that voter.
I can report in no uncertain terms the levels of anxiety in this house. My husband, who is a UK citizen, has found this an especially burdensome time. On one hand considered the very best kind of immigrant (white, educated, from a European country, no prior entanglements with the law), and the other, a liberal, (a dirty word to some of my family relations) he has a special burden in that he is not a citizen and therefore cannot vote until he is one.
I am an American citizen, born and raised.
And of our two middle school-aged children, my son entered this existence via my womb, which in the country he was born in is the “vessel” (nationality reserved) listed on his arrival documents handed me upon his birth (no joke). And since my uterus is contained within a US citizen body, he is, therefore, a US citizen also.
My daughter is an adopted citizen of another country, and too young to vote.
The whispers of unrest and violence seen on the news in other parts of the country are felt deeply by people like us — a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-national family. We are global nomads, who just happen to be in the US during this time. We move to a country, integrate and work, and after a few years, move on to greener pastures. Because of coronavirus, many borders are closed to us at this time, so invitations to leave can’t be seriously considered.
Four years ago, the elections were a supreme disappointment, and since then we have weathered the hurricane surrounding the current administration with smothered horror. We watched as certain things that should have been said, weren’t, and how the calming balm usually offered a suffering nation was never extended.
