A "Where Were You When" Moment

Salutations gentle folk

I just have to scribble something, as today will surely go down as one of those moments when you remember where you were when it happened. I was fortunate enough to be a guest of Perth’s US Consul General, Ken Chern, at an election function held in the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt.

 It was lovely to catch up with good friends from one side of the room to the other, not to mention rescuing two bewildered, lost souls! Patria was in tears – all the Obama badges had gone by the time she arrived – I found one for her and Mark McGowan, (immediate-past Education Minister), had mistakenly put on a McCain badge – “Both badges look the same!” he screamed! I came to his rescue with the spare Obama badge in my pocket, in case I wandered across just such a social disaster. Whittle didn’t have one either, but hey, seeing as he’s seven foot tall and bigger than a Boer forward, he managed to get one.

 The Consulate had mock election boxes and the assembled crowd of, I think, approximately 400, were invited to vote. Some 230 did, the result was about 212 for Obama and the rest for McCain. “Struth,” thought I, “Something’s happening!”

 There are, for me, defining moments in identifying whether a person is worth spending time with – a good person and just such a moment happened today.

 The Consul General was addressing us, when he broke into tears, explaining how proud he was that his country looked as though it had come to the point (the results weren’t absolute at that stage) of electing a man whose grandparents could have been slaves. It was a wonderful affirmation of Ken Chern’s humanity and the American people,  putting a metaphorical gold ribbon on what I hope is the start of a new, caring world, a place where, when our time is up, we can breath our last breath smiling, knowing we’ve left a better place for our kids and grandkids. 

 All Good Things

Greg Ross