This post began life as a response to a comment on the previous post from my good blogging friend, WiseWebWoman. It grew too long, so instead I decided to post it here.
I’ve lived in the US for thirteen years – came here exactly one year after 9/11 – and for a time believed I’d make it my home. But the longer I stay here the more I’ve come to realize I have to get out. This nation hasn’t yet learned to handle its immense power with any degree of dignity and maturity. Frankly, I doubt it ever will.
The opportunity was there in the aftermath of the atrocities of September 11th, 2001. The world stood solidly behind this country in its grief and suffering. America could have won the admiration of every nation on earth at that moment had it responded with any degree of wisdom and maturity. Instead it tossed them to the dogs (remember, “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists!”) by its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It never recovered respect after those monumental blunders, and I don’t believe it will ever have that opportunity again.
While the western states burn, water disappears, and Americans suffer and die due to weather extremes never before experienced in such severity and abundance, the frenetic drilling and mining for MORE oil and MORE coal continues unabated.
The crazy national obsession with firearms grows ever stronger, appearing to those beyond US borders as akin to the behavior of a mentally retarded child. Even in the aftermath of a series of appalling gun crimes, recent polls indicate that nearly 60% of Americans are against any form of gun control. Media brainwashing over ‘terrorists’ and ‘terrorism’ ratchets up daily, provoking further insane gun attacks on innocent civilians in cinemas, schools, shopping malls, or wherever there are suitable numbers of people to slaughter.
As for this nation’s politicians, I consider every Republican candidate standing for President could serve his country best if locked away for life in a secure mental institution, rather than allowed within a hundred miles of the White House. The present political ascendancy of Donald Trump must surely prove that the louder the drivel from the political mouth, the more fervent the applause of the sad, demented, folks taken in by it.
I believe there are only two politicians in this country worthy to be President of the United States, and one isn’t even running – Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Even if Warren were running, they’d stand about as much chance of winning as Donald Trump has of ever getting into Heaven. And that says a lot about America and its voting public.
So, I’ve decided to move to pastures new. I’m sure there are many who are happy to say, “Good riddance!” When Americans I meet ask why I’m leaving America to live in France, they look at me like I’ve decided to give up Heaven, in favor of Hell. They don’t realize they’re the ones in Hell, but like Plato’s prisoners in the cave, their view of the ‘outside’ is distorted by a lifetime of false impressions fed by a politco/corporate controlled media that has been selective in its version of the truth for decades.
None of this in any way decries the many fine, caring, people I’ve come to know in this country; they who are fully aware of the way this nation is failing itself and the world, good people with intellect and vision, though sadly, in the minority.
I may be leaving America, but Sparrow Chat will continue. Perhaps from back in Europe, my perspective on America will change somewhat.
I doubt it will be for the better.