Criminal
09-27-2002, 11:37 PM
So the question goes, hey Criminal if you hate the way things are in the United States than why dont you go somewhere. Why dont you go to Australia, Netherlands, Norway or Canada? Well I most certainly have thought about these things. In fact, after traveling to Europe I nearly jumped ship and went native. I really think it would be excitint to live in a place like Paris, to listen to street musicians, to argue leftist politics in tiny cafes, to make love to anarchist women who dont shave their legs and so on and so forth. Yea, it would be quite a life but then I would be an expatriot like thousands of others hanging out in foreign cities, spending their folks' money and pretending to be making some sort of difference, when they are doing nothing at all. Honestly I see my place as being right here. In fact I find nothing more anoying than listending to foreign nationals bich about how shiitty things are here in AmeriKKKa. Expecially when they are living in my house and spounging off of my generosity. I have heard people from Europe say how America is this and that or how fat people are here etc. Well I feel its only US citizens who can really bich about things here. I suppose in France, French feel the same way about americans who complain about their country, ditto for Italy, Germany, Japan and so on.
Well I am a US Citizen and was born here. I grew up here. I like the American Culture. I love the land here. I have traveled to all but a few states (Only Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhone Island and Delaware have I not visited). I find the diversity of the landscape so fascinating. I love the West Coast and Rocky Mountains but my favorite places are the empty deserts. When you drive through the desert of Oregon and just stop somewhere and look around is when you realize how vast the country is. This is truely a soul awakening experience. If you walk through the desert landscape at night time and look up to the sky you will see more stars than anywhere. There is no other lightsource anywhere.
My father's family came to the continent on the Mayflower. My mother's family came from Italy and arrived at Elis Island. Like all other people both families came looking for a better life. For many years America was the land of freedom and oportunity. For some it was a land of slavery and opression. What ever it was, it was the country of some 200 million people.
People think that leftism and anarchism are beliefs alien to the United States but this is quite the contrary. The US is a nation founded on rebellion. The American Revolution sent a wave of shock and hope in Europe, later inspiring the French Revolution and other rebellions. It was in my own home city of Chicago that a great labor rebellion occurred in the late 19th century. When a group of laborer protested an 8 hour day on May first, the police dispersed the group. A bomb was thrown killing many officers. The authorities arrested 4 leaders of the group, including a newspaper editor not present at the meeting and they were later hanged. These martyrs were later the inspiration for May day celibrations around the world. Groups like the IWW and the Socialist party carried on the traditions of the american labor movement even today.
During the depression of the 30's leftism gained some power in the Roosevelt administration. Young leftists joined the fight in Spain against Fascism. It was not until the post war era and the red scare that leftism was killed in the US and "Socialist" became a dirty word until this day.
Yet there are some of us left. We who refuse to die. The way I see it we, the american left are the truest of americans.
Well I am a US Citizen and was born here. I grew up here. I like the American Culture. I love the land here. I have traveled to all but a few states (Only Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, Maryland, Rhone Island and Delaware have I not visited). I find the diversity of the landscape so fascinating. I love the West Coast and Rocky Mountains but my favorite places are the empty deserts. When you drive through the desert of Oregon and just stop somewhere and look around is when you realize how vast the country is. This is truely a soul awakening experience. If you walk through the desert landscape at night time and look up to the sky you will see more stars than anywhere. There is no other lightsource anywhere.
My father's family came to the continent on the Mayflower. My mother's family came from Italy and arrived at Elis Island. Like all other people both families came looking for a better life. For many years America was the land of freedom and oportunity. For some it was a land of slavery and opression. What ever it was, it was the country of some 200 million people.
People think that leftism and anarchism are beliefs alien to the United States but this is quite the contrary. The US is a nation founded on rebellion. The American Revolution sent a wave of shock and hope in Europe, later inspiring the French Revolution and other rebellions. It was in my own home city of Chicago that a great labor rebellion occurred in the late 19th century. When a group of laborer protested an 8 hour day on May first, the police dispersed the group. A bomb was thrown killing many officers. The authorities arrested 4 leaders of the group, including a newspaper editor not present at the meeting and they were later hanged. These martyrs were later the inspiration for May day celibrations around the world. Groups like the IWW and the Socialist party carried on the traditions of the american labor movement even today.
During the depression of the 30's leftism gained some power in the Roosevelt administration. Young leftists joined the fight in Spain against Fascism. It was not until the post war era and the red scare that leftism was killed in the US and "Socialist" became a dirty word until this day.
Yet there are some of us left. We who refuse to die. The way I see it we, the american left are the truest of americans.