It is very sad what is happening in Kenya. People that have lived together in relative "peace" are now facing each other with violence. The reason? Because a large segment of the population thinks that their votes for President were manipulated. A lot of people apparently don't believe the results of the election, and they are fed up with this kind of "keep power at all cost" type of attitude. And, it appears that it is more or less a candidate representing the lower income and less privledged classes that lost the leadership through the contested election. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Remember Florida in 2000? Who doesn't?

But Kenya isn't the only place since Florida 2000 where a presidential election was disputed in a similar way. Remember the Mexican presidential election not too long ago? Same situ.ation. Candidate representing the lower classes of Mexican society loses in an election that many feel was manipulated and stolen.

I firmly believe that when the U.S. Supreme Court chose convenience and politics over insuring that we had an election in which everyone that wanted to vote and was eligible got to vote, and their votes were counted accurately, and put Bush in as president although for one thing, he didn't even receive the majority of the popular vote, and secondly, that no one will ever know whether or not he fairly won Florida. In fact, it's pretty clear he didn't. When one adds up the illegal scrubbing of tens of thousands of black voters by putting them falsely on the "felon" list which disallowed them to vote even though they were eligible, plus the so called "hanging chads," plus the "butterfly ballots," in which a number of voters ended up voting for Pat Buchanan that even Buchanan admitted never intended to, there is no way that Bush got a majority of the votes really.

But, as is true in so many ways, what happens in the U.S. provides a green light to other less affluent governments as far as what is acceptable for a government to do, and what will not bring the wrath of the U.S. down on them. When governments in Mexico and Kenya, not wanting to surrender power, saw that the corporate powers, including the Supreme Court, allowed an election get stolen, that sent the message that this is an OK way to stay in power. This is a huge problem with what the U.S. Supreme Court did, and it has beared the fruit of violence around the world.

Had the Supreme Court required a new election, and insured that it was done fairly, that would have sent the message to the rest of the world that what matters most in our country is democracy - the voice of the people. Instead, the message was sent that what is important is power and keeping it is a game that can be won regardless of the people's desire. It's really shameful. Hopefully our nation will look back on this, like we do on slavery and not allowing women to vote, and realize that this was a horrible decision, and fix it. If we don't, we can expect to see other governments around the world use any tactic they have to stay in power, regardless of whether the people really want it or not.