Balderas, two other parties kicked off the election campaign in Addis Ababa

Let’s hope and pray that the election will be civil and peaceful. I urge all parties to be ready for a fair campaign and also ready to accept both victory and defeat. It is my best wishes to all participants during the campaign and at the ballot box. They should look at each other as peaceful contestants and not enemies. Yes, the campaign can be noisy and taxing but who said democracy can’t be ruckus. From my personal observation democracy has this unique ability to heal itself quick. But as we have seen it ourselves, society where despots rein it takes wounds very long to heal, if at all. I also wish that many elites among us(they are usually very vocal) were not addicted to ethnic politics. I have this many times before and I’m gonna say it again. There is no difference between the member of Itu clan and that of citizen in Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Somali or any other regions in their foremost and primary needs. They all have been in want of good governance, peaceful/stable country with the means to make a living so they can bring the dough home to their families. This ethnic politics, to my observation, has been a treatable cancer eating at the heart of that gem of the colored. The reality is there are Oromos living peacefully areas where Amharas are the majority. There are also Amharas who have been living as a minority in a vast area where Oromos are the majority. I know that for fact. Let me put this way. Until I left that blessed country more than 6 decades ago, there was not a single incidence where the majority Oromos descended upon other minorities. But beginning the late 60’s and after that demonic philosophy of Marxism/Leninism began taking roots among college students in the capital, things went the wrong way. College campuses became incubators demonic commies. They suddenly turned Johnny-came-lately preachers of hate. Entrepreneurs were demonized. To become successful became a crime punishable by brazen robbery and death. Self determination up to including secession became the battle cry. The most ‘popular’ article that came of the college campus in the capital was about the right to secession. From whom to secede, we asked? From your enemies, we were told. Parties and fronts were founded by sworn commies to bring the secession to fruition. The rest is history as we know it: history of a malignant disease that took root beginning the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Since then innocent millions have lost their lives for no crime of their own. Innocent citizens are still being victimized in all corners of the country. Those upright and naturally harmonious people have been nudged and manhandled to be suspicious of his neighbor or be hostile to each other. Mind you, these are descendants of those glorious patriots who were united as one on the battlefield of Adwa. I never lost hope and I am rewarded for being so by the recent victory over the goons of the TPLF who are the original commies and their darasaas. Again, I hope we will give it up soon because it has been a lethal pathogen that has been devastating that pride of the colored.
The fire that was lit up in the late 1960’s is still burning those glorious people.