More than 5,000 people will die in the Mexican drug wars this year. Many of them will be non-combatants; innocents caught in the crossfire, or the parchment on which terrorist messages are sent.

The Mexican government has promised to do something about the killing, and tens of thousands of federal troops have been dispatched in a vain effort to stop the flow of drugs and the escalating violence. Perhaps they have been successful; perhaps the situation would be much worse without the intervention, though such speculation is horrifying in itself.

Their government increasingly blames the United States for the problem, or failing to do anything about it, and the charges are not unreasonable. First, we are the market for most of the drugs; 90% of the cocaine consumed in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

Second, Mexican gangs are also producing a great deal of their methamphetamine here and that scourge is destroying tens of thousands of lives in both rural and urban America. By some estimates, ten percent of the population of Baltimore uses meth.

Third, a considerable amount of the marijuana sold by Mexican gangs is actually grown here, much on public lands, which are despoiled in the process.

Fourth, the gangs are getting their guns from American dealers. Thousands of retail gun peddlers have set up shops on the border. Sales are soaring; one Phoenix dealer was recently arrested after having sold 650 assault weapons that wound up in gang hands.

We can pour a billion dollars or more into border control but that would have little effect; the border is porous, as we know from out immigration crisis.

There is a simple solution. Decriminalize drug use. It would remove the profit and dramatically reduce the amount of smuggling, dealing, and killing, on both sides of the border. It won't happen, of course, because our politicians are narrow-minded cowards.

The weekend before the US Presidential Election, I attended the first Arab American Festival in Glendale, Arizona. We have a very small Arab American community (so small that I had wrongly assumed it was nonexistent), and I was very intrigued to see what types of vendors and performances they might put on.

"The Arab American Festival is a Non-political, Non-religious, Non-profit Organization established to build community pride in the valley and showcases our diversity of music, arts, and cultures. Multi-generational and multi-cultural families gather to enjoy free music, arts and crafts, entertainment, children’s activities, and services from local businesses, foods, and vendors.

The Arab American Festival is an exploration of the rich culture and history of the world’s oldest civilization. Our festival is targeted to all Americans to create an awareness of the diverse ethnic groups while having fun."

Imagine my surprise, then, that the entire festival seemed to be geared around recruiting Arab Americans to work for the CIA, FBI, Armed Forces, and translation contractors.

Overall the event had a peculiar atmosphere of tension and suspended disbelief. It was not at all the welcoming, informative, unifying event that I had anticipated attending. Arab Americans appeared disquieted; the few non-Arab attendees seemed lost and uncertain. The information booth had no information except a list of which musicians were performing at which time. There were no explanations of the origins of certain dances and no boothes explaining the unique history and cultures of the many Arab nations. Other than an Afghan tent selling wooden frames of Mecca, I only saw a hookah tent and a couple of belly dancing costume boothes. Even the food stands left much to be desired: other than falafal, pita and kebab, there were almost no opportunities to discover Arab American cuisine. No tabbouleh, even!

Why not just have a career fair and openly court Arab Americans? Why try and mix it in with a "non political" cultural festival? My husband and I both tried expressing an interest in working for the federal government in these boothes, but they were clearly only interested in Americans with an Arabic background. So again, why not just have a career fair for them specifically? Wouldn't that have been a better way to reach out to them after all of the social injustice that they have endured anyway?

I regret most that such a promising opportunity to build a bridge between the Arab American community and Arizona society - and between Arabs themselves- was so blithely lost. Had the event really focused on its stated purpose, it would have been a success - regardless of the size of the turnout or the number of vendors. Instead, we all participated in a CIA raffle for giveaways such as post-it pads and lanyards.

A week after our historic presidential election, PBS (as part of Frontline) will be broadcasting Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. I reviewed the film a few weeks ago, and it’s a very engaging documentary!

Last night, I witnessed one of the seminal events of my lifetime. When CNN called the vote at 9 pm my local time, I did a double take. Could it really be that easy? I sat numbly for a moment, silently staring at the screen in front of me- afraid to blink lest it all disappear into the mist of another lost hope.

The footage suddenly cut to the mass of humanity pumping their fists and jumping up and down in unison; the colossal roar jarred me out of my stupor. After eight years of alienation in my own land, I felt surreally elated as I witnessed the physical manifestation of my joy playing out on the vast fields of Grant Park in Chicago.

It's really happened. I sat back on the couch, my legs tucked into my chest under a blanket, positioned like the awed child I now felt myself to be. A child witnessing history, beginning to hope again for the first time since I was in high school in the late nineties.

Scores of emotions poured out of me at once, the hundreds of hopes and dreams that I'd felt quashed year after year as the country had become increasingly anti-intellectual, regressive, hostile, and intractable. How many months had I been holding my breath, anxiously awaiting the result of this litmus test on the future of the nation?

As a 26 year old, I feel an immense sense of hope and promise that my next decade of adulthood will be better than my first. Not because Obama is a magical prophet who possesses some omnipotent ability to right all wrongs of the past, not because the nation will never suffer an economic depression again, and not because a great beautiful tomorrow free of social cleavages and corruption is guaranteed with this victory.

No, my unabated joy springs from a different font. I celebrate because we have closed the door on the blatant criminality and abject incompetence of the past eight years. While not a resounding mandate for the broad panoply of liberal values that I personally espouse, there is no denying that this election result is a solid "guilty verdict" on the Bush administration's conduct.

The elements that swelled into a perfect storm thrusting Bush into office both times still exist in our society, and they may re-emerge again. Conservatism, populism, ruralism and evangelical religious passion have long histories in this nation, and will not disappear overnight. You could even argue that they should not disappear, for they have contributed in often unappreciated ways to the progressive movement itself. Society will always be engaged in the push and pull of conflicting interests; tonight I am thankful that the flexibility still exists in our nation to permit us to correct our past mistakes.

The election of Obama is not just a referendum on the past, but a lighting of the torch for the future. It threatens to become a cliche, but there is no arguing against the reality that the under-30 voters have announced their generation's claim on the future of the nation. This generation is more tolerant, multi-racial, worldly and open to new ideas than the outgoing "Greatest Generation." The youth of the last depression and the Second World War was idealistic like us once; like them, we too will one day become outdated and calcified in our fears. For now, the moment belongs to us, and those who have dared to believe in the possibilities of change.

Certainly, Obama's victory is a fitting and long overdue milestone in the march for civil rights. Who could hold back their own tears while seeing the ones in Jesse Jackson's eyes? But it goes beyond this. Obama represents not only African Americans, but all of the multi-racial Americans, first-generation Americans, and Americans with Middle Eastern and African names. He is the face of the America I have always known.

My childhood best friend was half Slovenian, half Mexican. My best friend since high school is half German, half Filipino. My husband is half Korean, and a quarter each German and Irish. My brother's best friend in high school was half Jewish, half Japanese. My cousin's best friend is Indonesian. One of my sister's best friends is Iranian, and her two college roommates were Black-French from Louisiana and a recent immigrant from Peru. My other friends range from Polish and Norwegian to Indian and Chinese. My husband's best friend is African American; his other good friend is Navajo.

I list out these examples of diversity not because they are shining beacons in a dark night of white bread and Velveeta cheese, but because they are the new reality. This has, actually, been the reality for my entire life, and the lives of my generation. It just took us awhile to get to the polls, to form the groundswell with the sense of purpose demonstrated one night ago. For too many years, Americans like Sarah Palin and John McCain have been able to carry on as usual, operating under the great myth that American was still White Anglo Saxon Protestant. Taking a favorite line from McCain, "My friends, it's just not that simple anymore."

Simply put, I prayed for Obama to win because he represents the diversity and complexity of our nation, the promise foretold by the tremendous efforts of our ancestors. But at least as importantly, he is a man of dignity and intelligence, with a critical mind and a strong educational if limited political background. He stands erect behind the podium, poised, alert, and calm. He has the capacity to deal with the immense trials of our time, to understand nuance and navigate the shades of gray. He is a man that I trust to be able to take in and synthesize an impossible amount of information every day, a man that I trust to select qualified advisers instead of campaign contributor cronies. And fortunately for him, on the heels of the worst president ever to walk the corridors of the White House, he really can't mess things up any more than they already are.

The election of Barack Obama is a clear signal to the rest of the world that America desires a fresh start, that we are separating ourselves from the disastrous legacy of George Bush- and by voting this way, we are also taking responsibility for the shortsightedness we'd demonstrated during the past decade. We are standing for accountability, for our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, for the maligned middle class, and for the ultimate American Dream. Even if Obama accomplishes nothing, he has allowed the nation to begin to heal. And for that, I am grateful.