Yes, but Ravenman’s talking about the lack of folks incapable of being polite only when discussing Bush. I think Hong Kong gets a pass on this one. 
I am a foreign permanent resident living in the US married to a US citizen and I totally lost it on my own beloved mother after 9/11. I live in Boston. She just seemed to have no comprehension of the depth of shock and grieving here and started in way too soon with the anti-US rhetoric. Every now and then I still have to remind her that I live here and have friends and family here and would she please do me the courtesy of not bad-mouthing them by extension in anti-American rants.
And I’m a pinko. Well, a watermelon, green on the outside, pink on the inside ;). I just don’t really need to hear the hate stuff coming from my own Mum.
Your own reaction was not that of everyone in the United States. I remember all the discussion of “grief” in the wake of 9/11 and I simply couldn’t make heads or tails of it - what does it mean to “grieve” something that hardly effected me? I simply can’t understand what it means when you apply a personal word like “grief” to the deaths of strangers - I don’t think I’m capable of feeling that way about complete strangers.
Which is not to say you didn’t have a right to get mad at your mother. Just that I simply couldn’t understand most of America’s reaction to 9/11. It was surely awful, but to “grieve” over it doesn’t make sense at all to me.
Heh, I guess I didn’t qualify my statement. Qualify it however you feel like. People around me were showing shock and grief and fear. I know not everyone felt that but I was swimming in it here. Logan still has crap security. I know I had no right to first hand grief (and I am really really grateful for that) but a lot of people up here did. I grieved for people and their families although I didn’t know them, I grieved for the sense of security that may have been false but was most definitely lost to a lot of us on that day. I grieved not for the deaths but just for the anguish I saw in the faces of my co-workers that day when we were all seeing it. I am a bleeding heart, I admit. I can still get worked up just thinking about it.
I understand your statements - I felt the same way about the response to Princess Diana’s death - but I never claimed to be speaking for everyone in the US, and I’m not claiming that now. There WAS grief and shock, and she WAS utterly insensitive to that, whether you think the grief was warranted or not.
Oh, I don’t disagree at all - the wake of a terrorist attack calls for some sensitivity; I have no sympathy for people who decide that an attack on the U.S. is a good opportunity to get some digs in. It’s a shitty thing to do, and I don’t mean to defend it at all.
I would dearly love it if you could explain your brother’s rationale behind this statement. If you feel it is inappropriate to respond here in this thread, feel free to open another, or even just e-mail me.
Yes, you are. Then again, you could skip the political discussions with them, and concentrate on the family. You know, “How’s work? The kids? How’s the garden coming in? Seen any good movies lately? Nice talking to ya, take care, buh-bye.”
I’d say that you relate to your fam as one would represent the flag, ie send them each a letter bomb*. Well that would be the response that they seem to think should come from you right? Never mind the few HUNDRED THOUSAND Americans killed in the pursuit of ending that mean little Corporal that they gave Czechoslovakia to (without ever consulting the locals about mind you).
I agree with the consensus here, draw the line, let them know you are interested in an honest discussion but don’t bash an entire people group. And send them a political fault line map.
*Note, this is only a extreme example meant to make a point, don’t blow anyone up, just printers that won’t network.