I have been a Brit for 37 years and I am quite used to it. Now it turns out that the whole time I have also been an American (in 1973 they made my mum - oops, sorry, Mom - cry at the Embassy and took her passport away, I guess Nixon didn’t like one of their own marrying a Scot. Last year they made her cry again but gave it back this time)
So now I have to decide if I want to make it official and get me a US passport, social security number etc. I am trying to make a pros/cons list but so far all I have is:
Con
I hate apple pie
American TV Union Jack is even nicer
Football
Hollywood Britney Spears
Grand Ole Oprey
If the choice is between another Gore or Bush I may not bother
So US Dopers (or anybody with an opinion), I need you to tell me all the good and not so good things, what makes you proud and what makes you cringe with embarrassment. I have already printed out form DSP-11 but should I fill it in?
Well, the things I like about being an American (just the top 5 or so):
[ul]
[li] Enough personal freedoms to take your breath away[/li][li] Opportunities galore; if you can dream it, you can do it[/li][li] A beautiful country to explore. (I think that’s why Americans are not big travelers outside their own country as compared to some. We’ve got so much to see just in our own backyard).[/li][li] The world superpower (if you’re into that sort of thing)[/li][li] You can make a difference here [/ul][/li]
Cons:
[ul]
[li] We overconsume everything and generally don’t give a rat’s a** about it[/li][li] We think our sh** doesn’t stink and have a tendancy to act like that[/li][li] Are expected to be the world’s policeman (not looking for a debate, please)[/li][li] Not much of a social safety net (as compared to some countries) so if you screw up and fall, well, tough cookies (however, Americans are pretty caring folks so there’s usually some private non-profit that can help if the Gov. can’t)[/li][/ul]
I use “we” in the sense of “most Americans”.
Just MHO.
Pro
We can kick anybody’s butt
Con
We think it’s a Pro that we can kick anybody’s butt and are not afraid to say it. Over and over and over. . .
Pro
In addition to San Francisco we have New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and many more great cosmopolitan cities.
Con
We also have Camden, Newark, the dying mid-west, that city in Georgia where they don’t allow blacks to live.
We have lots of other food too. Tons of food. Huge portions. Take up an excercise program if you move here.
It is a nice flag isn’t it?
I actually find the game dull unless I am actually in the ballpark. Fortunately, that is an option for me.
The excitement of this varies greatly depending on the candidates offered. I wrote in Socks the cat this last time.
Me too. Fortunately it is not required eating.
Get a cable package that offers A&E, Discovery channel, Sci Fi, Comedy channel and the History channel and you’ll survive quite well without ever having to watch a sitcom.
Well, it is a matter of opinion. But if you want you can fly the Union Jack in your front yard and no one will bother you. Most of the hard feelings caused by the revolutionary war are long gone. (Why did we get upset over a tea tax anyway? Just leave the coffee alone!)
Oh yeah. Have you discovered NASCAR yet? The joy of driving machines very quickly in a circle? There’s more to it than you think. Just you wait.
Frankly if they give us one more teen lust movie, another sequel to anything, or (God Forbid) yet another old TV show made into a movie and I think we’re going to sell the whole place off.
Turn the sound off and you’ll understand the appeal. This is the same way I came to recognize the brillance of Shania Twain.
I wouldn’t even know to find this if I wanted to. And I don’t.
I love this country, but let’s get smarter, finally!
PRO: Competition
CON: Competition
Speaking from experience in dealing with BIG BROS’s red tape and plain stupidity: At the national level, we’d be an even bigger success if competition were sacrificed in the name of common sense! Our government wastes too much tax money reinventing the wheel just in the name of good ole “American” competition! For example, thank goodness Admiral Rickover convinced Congress to unify the Nuclear Navy (subs). Otherwise, we’d be the “Apollo 13” lame-ooh fleet on the high seas!
Also, “friendly competition” keeps America bound to OPEC’s apron strings as the oil companies lock away the R&D secrets which would have moved this nation towards being virtually OPEC free by now!
{FYI: The two halves comprising “Apollo 13” were built by two competitors with no careful watch dog for maintaining any standards. Thus, the square filter vs. round filter problem, for one! Can you say “Tower of Babel”?}
Here’s a pro: A written Constitution. Believe me, having an actual Bill of Rights is wonderful. Yes, I realize that Britain did finally go along with the rest of the EC in October and instituted some written guarantees of personal liberties. Having the rest of the Constitution along is a great pro.
Pros:
[ul][li]America is friggin’ beautiful in spots. The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Rockies, the majestic sweep of the great plains, the rolling hills and bluffs of the glacier-carved upper midwest, the miles and miles of oceanfront beaches, the tens of thousands of lakes of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the western deserts, the Black Hills, the trout streams in Montana, and on and on and on. You could spend your whole life travelling around the country just soaking up all the natural splendor.[/li][li]Miles and miles of highways and cheap (relatively speaking) gas, if you’re into that sort of thing.[/li][li]A fantastic mix of food in most cities (it ain’t all pizza and hamburgers – we are a melting pot after all).[/li][li]Within the last ten years or so, we’ve added some fantastic beer to the national palate. No, really.[/li][li]The opportunity to do just about anything you want (yeah, it sounds trite, but its true for the most part). Sure, there are obstacles. But this country is rife with rags to riches stories and the opportunities abound for those willing to give it thier all.[/ul][/li]Cons:
[ul][li]For every beautiful vista, there is city spoiled by urban sprawl.[/li][li]The cheap gas and miles of roads means that most cities are geared towards the automobile at the expense of pedestrians and cyclists.[/li][li]A lot of the food really is pizza and hamburgers[/li][li]A lot of bars still only serve Miller and Bud.[/li][li]We’ve still got a bit of work to do at removing obstacles to opportunity.[/ul][/li]On the whole though, I love it here.
Well, number one on my list of “Makes me cringe with embarassment” would be George W. Bush. But then, it’s well known that I am not his biggest proponent.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Bottle of Smoke *
**Pros:
[list][li]America is friggin’ beautiful in spots. The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Rockies, the majestic sweep of the great plains, the rolling hills and bluffs of the glacier-carved upper midwest, the miles and miles of oceanfront beaches, the tens of thousands of lakes of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the western deserts, the Black Hills, the trout streams in Montana, and on and on and on. You could spend your whole life travelling around the country just soaking up all the natural splendor.[/li]Yes, America does have a tremendous assortment of natural wonders. However, more importantly is our tendency to assign legal protection to said areas. The National Park idea was revolutionary thinking in the mid-late 1800’s (Yellowstone was the 1st N.P. in 1872), and it continues to draw fire from some corners who see preserving areas as a waste of natural resources. That we continue (at least through the last Presidential Administration) to value and protect natural areas is a luxury few contries can afford to do on the scale that we can. That said, I shudder about the proposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
So, if you number yourself among those who would want to preserve some areas from commercial exploitation and environmental damage–climb aboard–we can always use more voices (even if those voices have funny accents (smiley if I knew how to do it!).
I’ll do the cons first, because they’re easier to come up with.
Cons:
– The English have better words. (Dodgy. Guv’nor. Quid.)
– They also have better beer, chocolate, outdoor markets, secondhand bookshops, curry, and lots of other things.
– Imperial pints. 'Nuff said.
– Americans still can’t go to Cuba, at least not without a great deal of bureaucratic runaround.
– Whether or not they are personally in favor of the death penalty, Americans are constantly beset by people demanding that they defend it every time they venture outside of the US.
– Nobody can hit the high notes in “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and if you go to any baseball games you will be forced to hear them try.
Pros:
– Decent Mexican food. (Be aware, however, that this is counterbalanced by a lack of decent Indian food.)
– Cheap gasoline.
– In most places, the bars stay open until two.
That’s it? That’s all you care about? If these are the most important things to you, relative to your citizenship, then you are far too shallow for me. I would not want myself to be in the same class (American) with someone who only wanted to be an American becuase he likes pizza and hamburgers. Stay in Britain, pay your 80% tax rate and keep your squirrely mitts off my pizza.
If you had listed, I dunno, something about the 1st Amendment, or the lack of a figurehead royalty, then I’d surmise you have more important things on your mind than the food court menu items at the mall.
You have no business voting in an American election, even if you are technically a citizen. You may, however, continue viewing American cartoons, since that seems to be what turns you on.
This means I got to cheer when ‘we’ saved the world in Independence Day, and scoff at all the stupid Americans in every British film made during the last 20 years.
If people start conversations with ‘I really hate Americans’ (which happens on a daily basis in the UK) I get to be really snotty along the lines of ‘oh yeah, you’re just jealous’ etc, because I am ::so:: fantastic at witty put-downs. And I can be as grossly insulting about the Royal Family in ways only born-and-bred Brits get to do.
I also have two sisters and a brother now living stateside, so have holidays on tap (soon as I save the airfare), and an escape route should the UK ever get invaded by the French.
(I also got to live in the States for two years as a teenager, but was hated at school for my accent and bullied mercilessly on my return, so that’s not so much of a ‘pro’ I guess)
I’d have posted the name if I had remembered it. Oprah had a “town hall” type show with the people from that town and some of the surrounding counties (both black and white). Since this was Oprah and not Jerry Springer, there was a lot of crying involved and not a single chair was thrown.
Sample quotes from memory “It’s our town! I don’t have nothing against black folk, but I can choose my neighbors if I want.”
Surrounding villagers: “They can keep it. It’s nothing but a big crap hole!”
Now back to the pros and cons of being an American.
The reference may be to Forsyth County, Georgia (county seat: Cumming) directly north of Atlanta. In the mid-70’s I lived in Forsyth County for a while, and while there was no official policy prohibiting African American residents, there were no African American residents there! Let’s just say blacks were made - um - uncomfortable there.
IIRC, in 1987 (I had long since moved away) long-time civil rights activist Hosea Williams led a march on Cumming that was countered by a rally by the Klan. It got lots of national press.
Today, I’d be surprised if the anti-black “policy” were still in place, simply because a major expressway conncts Atlanta to Cumming (when I lived there it was a two-lane highway) and business and real estate development in the county has exploded. Hard to see how that could happen if such a virulent attitude still pervaded. See http://web.cln.com/archives/topside/newsstand/archives/041799/x_cover.htm for an item on the county today, as well as its unpleasant past.
Pro: It’s the greatest country in the world by a long shot thanks to near total Freedom.
You are a lot further away from France and have less snide remarks to deal with.
You can sue someone if you are stupid and drink hot coffee, well for you, tea:)
Con: Too many citizens who still don’t understand that and can only complain about how bad they have it, the government, the people elected rulers, low tax rates, EPA, OSHA, etc… and constantly make comparisons of how much better “other countries have it”, but won’t move there.
You are a lot further away from France and have less French people to make snide remarks to in return.
You can get sued for giving someone hot coffee, well for you, tea.
Being in America is like being in a country that is full of a bunch of smaller countries. Each State, while mandated by the Federal junk, have their own laws, tax codes, driver’s license tests, etc etc. Basically if you don’t like how something is done, you can easily move to a different state and it’s like a whole 'nuther world (with the exception of the cookie-cutter chain stores you get everywhere.)
And speaking of that, I don’t know any other country in which you can pick whatever climate you want to live in. Like it hot and dry? Try New Mexico or Arizona. Like it hot and wet? Try costal Texas or Florida. Like to have definitive seasons? Try the Midwest. From the Tundra of Wisconsin to the Florida Swamps to the Fields and Forests everywhere there is about every different weather system here. Wanna big city? they’re all over. Wanna small town, we got those too.
Just think of America as a conglomerate of 50 other countries who all agree on some basic things. The States are like siblings - they might argue amongst themselves for a cookie, but when someone outside the family comes around, they are a very solid unit.
I guess i’m more patriotic than I thought.
I was lucky enough to live in Scotland for a couple of years. I did not appreciate America until I could see it with fresh eyes on my return, and I look for ways to see my environments afresh. A lot of the CONS listed above can get a lot CON-ier in other places on Earth, but most of the PRO’s hold true.
America has great beauty with strip mines right next door. If someone cannot see past the latter to the former, then it is their loss. Our country is getting cleaner and smarter and more humane, not by leaps and bounds but by tiny grudging inches. Our country is getting cleaner and smarter and more humane, not by leaps and bounds but by tiny grudging inches. America is what we make it.
::pause while taking off red, white and blue underoos::
The opportunity to succeed is balanced by the opportunity to crash horrifically.
We treat our weakest most helpless people with apathy.
We build our infrastructures on sand.
Our economy is driven by panic stricken day traders.
Our government is run by either hucksters, luddites or check-writers.
We are rewarded for what we can sell rather than what we can create.
