Expatriate 2012

Let’s vote with our feet. Or our frequent flyer miles. Who am I kidding? I don’t have frequent flyer miles. I’d have to find a great deal from Expedia and fly coach. With the 2012 election season getting underway, I have my own hat to throw into the ring. My slogan: Expatriate 2012.

Obama needs to step it up. Or Mitt Romney (bad enough), Rick Perry (even worse), or Michelle Bachmann (I couldn't move far enough away) will be our next president. Let's get out of here while we still can!

All the cool kids of the 1920s did it. Ernest Hemingway. Gertrude Stein. T.S. Eliot. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ezra Pound. Let's form our own Lost Generation. Sure, we didn't come of age during the disillusionment that followed World War I, but we've seen enough disappointment in our short lives. Let's get the heck out of Dodge. Let's blow this popsicle stand. Let's write our own version of The Sun Also Rises. Our own This Side of Paradise.

We could follow in their footsteps and jet off to France. Lord knows I've been watching enough French New Wave lately. I absolutely love French films. Breathtakingly beautiful cinematography. Or pull a T.S. Eliot and head to England. Just not Greece. Unfortunately. Maybe Denmark. They speak English there. Or maybe somewhere in Latin America. I've been watching telenovelas to brush up on my Spanish before my language proficiency exam in January. Or an island in the Caribbean, perhaps? I've seriously been considering this option more and more with each passing day. I want to work in their archives and libraries to make their rich history available to the people.

But where ever we go, I must stop to pick up this book before I leave! I love me some Arthur Schlessinger, Jr!