Bad News for Some Americans
I've been checking out a lot of blogs today, thanks to Blog Explosion, and I have had such a laugh over some posts and their corresponding comments! I tried to leave a comment of my own on one in particular, but it wouldn't let me for some reason. The screen kept saying "Page Not Available". So, on the off chance that any of the people that this is aimed at will be reading, I thought I'd post my comments here.
To those of you who say that the UK liberal media wants to join the European Union while the British citizens are against it:
Guys, come on! The UK has been a fully participating member of the European Union since 1972! That's 23 years, longer than some of you have been alive, I'd wager. If you don't believe me, check it out for yourselves on the official EU website. I conveniently have this bookmarked because I'm a law student, and this year I'm required to study European Union law.
And this is something that's been bugging me for a while, though it's not aimed at anyone in particular. I haven't read this on a blog but I thought that this is as good a time as any to set something straight. People in Europe who are citizens of other countries can't be un-American because they're not American to start with. They can be anti-American, but not un-American, not in the way you are using the term.
To those of you who say that the UK liberal media wants to join the European Union while the British citizens are against it:
Guys, come on! The UK has been a fully participating member of the European Union since 1972! That's 23 years, longer than some of you have been alive, I'd wager. If you don't believe me, check it out for yourselves on the official EU website. I conveniently have this bookmarked because I'm a law student, and this year I'm required to study European Union law.
And this is something that's been bugging me for a while, though it's not aimed at anyone in particular. I haven't read this on a blog but I thought that this is as good a time as any to set something straight. People in Europe who are citizens of other countries can't be un-American because they're not American to start with. They can be anti-American, but not un-American, not in the way you are using the term.
posted by Melinda at 1/22/2005 05:22:00 pm
4 Comments:
Excellent points. And really, an American can't be "un-American" either. Because if someone is an American, then he/she is American, by definition. I suppose you could classify someone's actions or beliefs as "un-American", but not the person themselves.* However, then you would have to get into a whole process of defining what beliefs and actions are inherent in the concept of "American" and what falls outside that definition...
*I hope this makes sense. I am snowed in today, and may be starting to lose my mind ;)
It might be a scary thought, but I do understand you! LOL You're right, even an American can't be unAmerican even if others say they are because they would have proof they were American, like a driving license or passport.
I'm cracking up.
I'm an American, but not un-. I'm more than half-Brit, too, and damned proud of it. See, although I was born in America, I can remove myself from there and go somewhere else. If I move to Canada, then I can become a citizen. If I do that, then I'm no longer American. I'm Canadian. I can't, however, remove my blood heritage. I'll always be more than half-Brit.
When it comes to being American, what I am is an angry American. I don't like what I see going on in my country. It makes me want to, as a friend might say, cark it all and leave. But I won't. My reasons for not leaving are not patriotic, I'll admit. They're familial. My family comes before my country. I'm a Townshende before I'm an American. I'm more than half-Brit before I'm an American.
Having said all this, at some point in the not-too-distant future, I will seek other shores. And, much as I don't like what's going on in this country, much as it does provide me motive to leave, it's not really my primary motive for doing so. It's a desire I've had since I was a teenager, back when I was a military brat and jaunting all over the world on the coattails of my military father. Travel, like my British heritage, is in my blood. When I was young, America, to me, was nothing more than just another foreign country. I even remember saying those exact words when I was, perhaps, 17, and had just returned to America after having lived in England for 3 1/2 years. (I miss England. I'd like to go back. It's my mum's home.) Not surprising when you consider that I was nearly 30 before I could say more than half my life had been lived in America.
I don't see any of what I said above as UN-American, either. I was born in America. I can't change that. So, by right of birthplace, I'll always be an American, even if I do leave and change my citizenship. Heh, even then, I was fairly international, having been born in a town on the Canadian border. See? It was meant to be.
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