Referendum

[davidn]

I haven't even mentioned the Scottish Referendum to anyone - somehow it's always seemed like it was a far-off unimaginable thing, but I think it only hit me yesterday that this is truly going to alter the future of the United Kingdom. An incredible 97% of Scottish citizens have registered to vote (like the one above who forgot he'd left his white suit out on the washing-line before he spray-painted his fence) and my Facebook has been alive with campaigners, mostly showing enthusiasm from the Yes side.

I haven't shared my opinion because I really don't know what to think - in America I've been used to many hot-button political issues having an obvious right and wrong answer from a progressive standpoint, but this is the first time in ages that if given the choice, I really wouldn't know what to decide. "No" is seen as the safe and dull choice, staying with a country that's worked before but is in a serious social decline, and "yes" comes with a ton of risks and uncertainties but allows Scotland to keep providing the things I'm proud it provides like freely available education and healthcare... if the economics of it work out. "Yes" seems like the step to take to hope for an exciting and promising future, but if I were still living there, I'd probably be much more fearful of change and more in favour of things staying the same.

But I don't get a vote, so I'm sitting here hitting F5 on the BBC News site all day - not that this actually does anything, because no reports on the actual polls are allowed until they close, and the results won't be announced until about 7am in Scotland, which is after midnight where I live. If it's a Yes, then I'll have to reapply for citizenship to my own country due to not having been born there - that'll be a barrel of laughs.

There has already been one Yes today - the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has taken the "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" sign with the S backwards off their treehouse and have decided to allow women to join for the first time in a quarter of a millennium. We are building a fairer society, one step per century.