So the American presidential elections are finally over and history has been made. Barak Obama’s enormous achievement made Tuesday a great night. So great in fact, that I fear something important will be overlooked: that it was also a terrifying night. Allow me to elaborate.

I’ve recently come to Toronto, Canada and I’ve been taking pictures to send back home to Iran. One interesting event I attended was downtown Toronto’s famous Halloween party. As I was thinking of sending pictures back home, I came across this picture I took with someone dressed as Sarah Palin (Sarah Palin was quite a popular outfit that night):

This photo posed a problem: I was thinking of explaining to some of the folks back home in Iran who may not be familiar with Halloween that it is a night when people put on scary costumes. Was I to send them this photo, I would have to make things more complicated and go on to say that today, people just dress up as any character and it doesn’t necessarily have to be scary. But then I paused and it hit me: Sarah Palin is scary. She’s horrifying!

She’s horrifying in the sense that a 10 year old behind the wheels of a car is horrifying, or in the sense that leaving a baby alone near a fire or electricity hazard is terrifying. It is obvious to the world that she was not ready for this job (She didn’t even know that Africa is a continent, not a country!). And yet, the workings of the modern world are such that in one of the most advanced of countries, someone such as Sarah Palin came this close to being a heartbeat away from the most powerful position on Earth.

This is terrifying indeed.

If the world were a car with a half-functioning break running fast in a high traffic street, would we want someone who doesn’t know how to drive behind the wheel?

I’m afraid the greatness of Obama’s victory will overshadow the deep design flaws in our sociopolitical systems. Yes it is true that history was made, but don’t forget the threat that passed right over our head.