Change is coming... (White: appointed, violent crime, private schools)

[huttah]

My sister travels the world a lot for her job and whenever she meets people from other countries, she usually says she's from Canada because it's literally embarrassing to be an American! Every other country in the world does not understand half the crap we do, and as an American, I have no idea why we're doing half the stuff we do. Everyone my sister speaks with when traveling (these are all well educated people) said they hoped Obama would win, and now that he has, my sister feels like she can come out of the closet as being an American.

[blackhillsdreams]

Originally Posted by huttah

My sister travels the world a lot for her job and whenever she meets people from other countries, she usually says she's from Canada because it's literally embarrassing to be an American! Every other country in the world does not understand half the crap we do, and as an American, I have no idea why we're doing half the stuff we do. Everyone my sister speaks with when traveling (these are all well educated people) said they hoped Obama would win, and now that he has, my sister feels like she can come out of the closet as being an American.

I feel sorry for you and your sister, and anyone else that feels that way. I was in Ireland in 1985. There were people who hated the US then. I saw many flyers, t-shirts, and posters calling Reagan "Ronnie Ray-gun" and so forth. There were many places I went on that trip (23 years ago) where people treated me badly because i was American.

There have been comments about French people having that attitude LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG before that. I knew a secret service officer (my very best friend's father) who had been in Paris in the 70's, he was ordering food at a restaurant in English and was treated like garbage. He switched to GERMAN and they completely changed their attitude. GERMAN, the same people that were attacking them in WWII only 30 years earlier.

I don't know why we do everything we do, I don't have to agree with everything we do, but I will always be proud to be an American. If I ever feel the need to claim I'm from Canada, I will make an effort to move there, so I can tell the truth!

Lastly, the United States is the only country in the world that has to consider putting up a fence along the border to keep people from getting IN! We may not be the land of opportunity we once were, but we are still the best thing going.

[Jammie]

Huttah, I'm sorry your sister feels that way. I've always been proud to be an American and even though we don't always do everything right, this is still the greatest country on earth.

BH is right concerning the French. Guess our poor soldiers who ended up in Flander's (sp?) field would've done things differently had they known how the French would eventually feel about America. IMHO the French's views of America just doesn't matter. We owe them nothing, but they owe us much.

And yea~GW was wrong about a lot of things, but he's also blamed for some of the most ridiculous things that he really had no control over. It's just always easier to blame someone else for our own mistakes.

BH, I wish I had an answer to your original question. Maybe we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Some of the rowdy foreigners who are glad Obama won may just end up changing their minds if they push their agendas too hard and he lets them know it's just not allowed.

[Mr. Cooper]

huttah, some of the most "well educated people" in the world don't have an ounce of common sense.

[JMPerry]

Originally Posted by blackhillsdreams

I was expecting to see at least one or two posts celebrating Obama's win here? I had (have) problems with either candidate, and I made my choice which has no bearing on anything so I won't go into that.

One of the things I don't like about Obama is the fact that it seems like every rogue nation that openly HATES The United States, seems to LOVE Obama. I really can't say whether or not that is bad, but I don't feel good about it.

1. Chavez wants to meet with him and was glad he won. Chavez is a criminal who froze, then seized the assets of his people.
2. Castro likes him and thinks Obama will be lienient on Cuba and Policy towards Cuba.
3. All comments coming from the Middle East are pro Obama, including terrorist regimes.
4. France.... they like him, hate us. Yet if Germany invaded them tomorrow, the first call for help would go to the White House for defense.
5. Lindsay Lohan... I don't have one nice thing to say so I won't say anything...

I can't say if this will be good or bad in the long run, but it concerns me that SO MANY people that utterly despise the U.S. like the fact that Obama won. This is not a shot at Obama the person, or later Obama the President. I'm just wondering where this is all going...

Here's the thing, I know a lot of the world openly HATES The United States, I wish they didn't. They also have at least a little fear of attacking or pushing us too far. My concern is they will STILL HATE us but now have no fear of us...

Okay, let me weigh in on the affirmative here, with Blackhillsdreams. Never, in the history of the world has a nation come from so little and amounted to so much in 200 short years. We send billions of dollars in various forms of aid from both the government and the private sector to virtually every corner of the planet, every year. Capitalism, operating out of the Judeo-Christian worldview, upon which this country was founded, (notwithstanding the mealy mouthed historical reconstructionists which would have us believe otherwise, in spite of the readily available facts) has made us the richest country on earth.
Meanwhile, all of the humanistic worldview based political systems ever devised, Marxism, Solialism, Communism, etc., have utterly failed, demoralized whole nations, and left millions starving. The hate other countries feel for us, as they bite the very hand feeding them, defending them, and investing in them, is born of envy. The illogical fanatical hatred of all things American or Israeli is spiritually based. And their ally is the elitist liberals of this country who would have us feel guilty because we have worked hard, and acheived the American Dream, and brave men of every generation have fought and died and oversome evil to preserve our right to work for that dream, and not have our success redistributed to those who won't work for it.
And they are delighted that Obama has won the election because they sense a kindred spirit, that will weaken America as he tries to pacify the mad dog fanatics that raise their little children to strap on bombs to destroy the great Satan.
Obama is a man who should never have come to power. He had so many strikes against him, from the hate-preacher who provided his spiritual guidence for his whole life until he threw him under the bus to get elected, to his radical, subversive, terrorist college associates, that, had he been a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestent, he couldn't have been elected dog-catcher in Spudville, Idaho. Of course they celebrate his election. He is one of them. To paraphrase a certain Freudian slip; "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really afraid for my country".

[blackhillsdreams]

To add my 2 cents to what Mr. Perry said, some folks here know my wife is from Colombia, South America. She went home for the last week of October to visit her family, not having been there for close to 2 years. I can tell you that she was SO EXCITED to be going, planning the trip for the past two months or so. I tried to tell her things might not be quite the way she remembered them but to go and have fun with her family. I won't go into it too much but I will tell you that they don't call Colombia a 3rd world country for nothing. I've been there three times prior to her coming here. I found it to be a terrible place for the most part but I never dared to tell her that. After all, she grew up there and that was all she knew.

Well, she flew out on a Saturday with a big smile ready to celebrate her little sister's birthday. We only planned for her to stay one week and right up until she left, she regretted not planning to stay for two weeks to have more time to visit.

By Wednesday, she was calling me crying wanting to come home. Seriously crying. She is SO PROUD to be in America now and very proud to have an American husband. So, to those out there saying they are ashamed to be an American, there are plenty of other countries that would love to have you (or not...), there are also still MILLIONS who would LOVE the chance to come here and give life a shot on the terms we enjoy and take for granted.

[DannyBanany]

Originally Posted by huttah

My sister travels the world a lot for her job and whenever she meets people from other countries, she usually says she's from Canada because it's literally embarrassing to be an American! Every other country in the world does not understand half the crap we do, and as an American, I have no idea why we're doing half the stuff we do. Everyone my sister speaks with when traveling (these are all well educated people) said they hoped Obama would win, and now that he has, my sister feels like she can come out of the closet as being an American.

That's really too bad that your sister feels that way. When I was in France and I told people I was an American they were surprisingly quick to strike up a conversation with me. Of course, I speak French fairly well so maybe that's why we got along so well. I know French people get really annoyed when an American comes up to them and starts speaking English. But wouldn't it make you mad if you were walking on the street in New York and someone came up to you asking questions in French?

I do agree that the reason many countries hate the United States so much is because we help them out so much and they feel indebted to us. Like my grandma used to say, "America has its nose in everyone's business and it's bound to get cut off soon." Americans are portrayed as fat, lazy, rich, idiots who have a "Big Brother" complex. It's just stereotypical, but it's no reason to claim that you're not an American when you really are!

[SD snowbird]

Who do they call when they need military support? Who do they call when their people need food sent in because of a natural disaster or some a****le is starving millions of people?
They call us because they know we'll come. Maybe it's time to mind our own business and let them figure it out? I don't think so but something's gotta give.

[ccjarider]

So right Snowbird.
Some people should be embarrased, not because they are from the US, but because they are afraid to defend their country.

[Wicked Felina]

Wow, this thread is so much better [civil/instructive/polite/realistic]than the Politics forum. I'm impressed - seriously. This thread was actually a pleasure to read. Good job, everyone ~