![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrm_backupHappy Thanksgiving Eve everybody! I am so very looking forward to the baking of pies and the cooking of turkey. I did the bulk of the grocery shopping last night. Nothing puts me in a snotty, melancholic mood more then trying to weave my way through a sea of shopping carts and harried people. I think from now on I'm going to do all of the shopping at least a week before the holiday itself, might save me from injuring any of my fellow shoppers;-). I'm counting the hours until I can get home and fire up the oven.
I am so sick and tired of the mindless patriotism of a large section of the American populace. Don't think GW is a great president, then you're obviously anti-american; don't agree with the war in Irag, then you should just pack up and leave the country you uber-liberal freak. It's just downright infuriating the way some people react if you voice your opposition to these topics.
Frankly, I don't think we need to be anymore polarized as a country and the way these 'patriots' are reacting simply causes those who disagree with their viewpoint to become even more vehement in their opposition. Personally, I've never understood patriotism. I love my home, I love being an American but I've never been able to entertain the notion that something, some mystical essence, makes Americans that much better then any other people in the world. In this evolving world we have to learn to think beyond national boundaries and do what is best for the world at large. Just as we can't afford to isolate ourselves neither can we afford to make the world conform to our culture and ways. It's not right that the American government has so succesfully angered a great many nations.
I remember when this whole war in Iraq actually started. I would listen to the radio and hear dj's babble on about how we needed to support the troops and blah blah blah. Of course, the only way to support the troops was to fall in and support the Bush administration's policies and the war itself. That idea pissed me off. I didn't support the war, I didn't support Bush, but I also didn't want any Americans (or any Iraqis, or any Bretons, etc.) to die. It is possible to support the soldiers while, at the same time, refusing to support the people who sent them there.
Perhaps I'm too understanding, perhaps I'm too soft-hearted, but, for some reason, I don't see those as bad characteristics. I people would stop short-sightedly cleaving to organization or country and rather embrace what is best for the world community, then we might be able to find a little hope for the human race after all.
I am so sick and tired of the mindless patriotism of a large section of the American populace. Don't think GW is a great president, then you're obviously anti-american; don't agree with the war in Irag, then you should just pack up and leave the country you uber-liberal freak. It's just downright infuriating the way some people react if you voice your opposition to these topics.
Frankly, I don't think we need to be anymore polarized as a country and the way these 'patriots' are reacting simply causes those who disagree with their viewpoint to become even more vehement in their opposition. Personally, I've never understood patriotism. I love my home, I love being an American but I've never been able to entertain the notion that something, some mystical essence, makes Americans that much better then any other people in the world. In this evolving world we have to learn to think beyond national boundaries and do what is best for the world at large. Just as we can't afford to isolate ourselves neither can we afford to make the world conform to our culture and ways. It's not right that the American government has so succesfully angered a great many nations.
I remember when this whole war in Iraq actually started. I would listen to the radio and hear dj's babble on about how we needed to support the troops and blah blah blah. Of course, the only way to support the troops was to fall in and support the Bush administration's policies and the war itself. That idea pissed me off. I didn't support the war, I didn't support Bush, but I also didn't want any Americans (or any Iraqis, or any Bretons, etc.) to die. It is possible to support the soldiers while, at the same time, refusing to support the people who sent them there.
Perhaps I'm too understanding, perhaps I'm too soft-hearted, but, for some reason, I don't see those as bad characteristics. I people would stop short-sightedly cleaving to organization or country and rather embrace what is best for the world community, then we might be able to find a little hope for the human race after all.
