I have a policy never to argue politics or religion with anyone because I believe it’s nearly impossible to change anyone’s mind. I think people have to get to that point on their own initiative, and that the politics and religion of their childhood will often, although thank goodness not always, be the most influential factor in a person’s adult philosophy.
Living as an American expatriate means living in a dichotomy of feelings about the country of my birth. It’s even harder since I was raised as a military brat with all the subtle and unsubtle indoctrination and propaganda that entails. I find myself creating a more deliberate distance with my country because I don’t agree with the state of the current administration, and fervently hope that they will reconsider the course of action they’ve taken and take steps to repair the damage they are doing to the world’s view. I don’t like it that we are held in contempt by so many people. I find it frightening that so many people “back home” apparently have no clue how they are viewed by the rest of the planet. America, and Americans are so full of contradictions and facets that it’s nearly impossible to describe them or stereotype them.
I had a Swedish friend ask me recently if I was also upset about what is “happening” in America. She didn’t need to elaborate on what she meant by “happening.” If you want to read about what is really “happening” in America, there are plenty of better places to do it than CNN. Try The Nation or The Economist or any alternative news channel. Every news site has an agenda, and every piece is skewed. I know that. You get what you want out of the news that you select. Nobody wants to hear bad news and some days it seems that’s all there is.
I voted for him. I wonder where we’d be today if he’d won? In this, his third major speech on the Administration’s response to terrorism, Gore has managed, in his conversational and professorial way, to pull off a withering critique of Bush’s bumbling national security state — and yet to be so totally reasonable about it that he truly does here speak to, and for, the broadest segment of Americans. Read more