What make strange bedfellows
These days, I tend to be among those who stick to checkbook activism. Rarely have I been embarrassed to be an American, except this past summer in Canada, when I was asked questions about U.S. foreign policy I couldn't answer in any way that made sense to me or the questioner.
Too young to protest the Vietnam War, I did have some awareness of it, and grew up as a war-is-not-healthy-for-children-and-other-living-things child. I did all my marches on Washington in the Reagan-Bush years. My excuse for missing D.C. in this administration is that none of the marches has coincided with time I was in the U.S.
Iraq, to me, has been Vietnam redux -- except now I'm considerable older, I've been voting for 25+ years, and I am not a happy camper.
I am of the travel-before-you-get-too-cranky-to-sit-in-coach school, and after I turned 40, it seemed time to hit the sky, as it were. In retrospect, it was an inspired choice, particularly as I turned 40 the year little boy Bush slid in to the Oval Office. Thus far my world tour has included China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands. In prior years, on multiple occasions, I covered Western Europe and numerous Caribbean islands
Last night I was invited to a screening of "Bush Family Fortunes," and what that family has done to make money isn't pretty. Cold, hard cash and greed, more than politics per se are what make strange bedfellows. Either that, or ethics is neither on the syllabus at Yale nor on the menu at any Bush family holiday celebration.
The way things are going, I might actually be shopping for a new country after the election, particularly after reading a poll from U.K.'s Guardian, published Friday.
It concluded: "The results show that in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and South Korea a majority of voters share a rejection of the Iraq invasion, contempt for the Bush administration, a growing hostility to the US and a not-too-strong endorsement of Mr Kerry. But they all make a clear distinction between this kind of anti-Americanism and expressing a dislike of American people. On average 68% of those polled say they have a favourable opinion of Americans."
My friends who have dual citizenship are seriously investigating their options. Yet, for better or worse, I am home. And it is hard to imagine "home" being anywhere else.
Too young to protest the Vietnam War, I did have some awareness of it, and grew up as a war-is-not-healthy-for-children-and-other-living-things child. I did all my marches on Washington in the Reagan-Bush years. My excuse for missing D.C. in this administration is that none of the marches has coincided with time I was in the U.S.
Iraq, to me, has been Vietnam redux -- except now I'm considerable older, I've been voting for 25+ years, and I am not a happy camper.
I am of the travel-before-you-get-too-cranky-to-sit-in-coach school, and after I turned 40, it seemed time to hit the sky, as it were. In retrospect, it was an inspired choice, particularly as I turned 40 the year little boy Bush slid in to the Oval Office. Thus far my world tour has included China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Galapagos Islands. In prior years, on multiple occasions, I covered Western Europe and numerous Caribbean islands
Last night I was invited to a screening of "Bush Family Fortunes," and what that family has done to make money isn't pretty. Cold, hard cash and greed, more than politics per se are what make strange bedfellows. Either that, or ethics is neither on the syllabus at Yale nor on the menu at any Bush family holiday celebration.
The way things are going, I might actually be shopping for a new country after the election, particularly after reading a poll from U.K.'s Guardian, published Friday.
It concluded: "The results show that in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and South Korea a majority of voters share a rejection of the Iraq invasion, contempt for the Bush administration, a growing hostility to the US and a not-too-strong endorsement of Mr Kerry. But they all make a clear distinction between this kind of anti-Americanism and expressing a dislike of American people. On average 68% of those polled say they have a favourable opinion of Americans."
My friends who have dual citizenship are seriously investigating their options. Yet, for better or worse, I am home. And it is hard to imagine "home" being anywhere else.
posted by alice, uptown at 10:21 PM
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