Red state, blue state, one state, two state

About a month ago, 74% of AZ voters felt English should be the state's official language, 74% voted against preserving 43,000 acres of state trust land and 71% voted to limit education services for illegal immigrants. (To its credit (?), the state did not vote not to ban same-sex marriage by a measly 52%.)

When I first moved here I felt the type of culture shock one would feel arriving on a different continent. I had never met anyone my age who was still an active (= at least once a week) church goer. Or a proud republican. Or who had never left the state. I went through 5 years of college without once encountering anyone who falls into those categories. I was in the woody East, I had ideas. I thought Kerry would win because I never met anyone who thought otherwise. I was clueless.

I strongly believe that American young adults and college students should be just as encouraged to spend a semester in another part of this country compared to spending one in another part of the world. I can only imagine what it would have been like to spend that election living here. And I thought being a liberal in NYC was hard...

Relately, since the feds are paying for my program in its entirety I'm beginning to feel a vague sensation of loyalty to the States (specifically, its educational system) that I've never quite felt before. It's kinda messing up my plan of indefinitely jet-setting around the globe, getting EU citizenship, working half the week and spending the other half smearing Nutella on various food stuffs.

(The above poster is from here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/wpahome.html, check out the "collection highlights" link.)