Change Is Good

Change is good. I love this expression and try to keep in mind always. Both as individuals and collectively, I think change is a necessary part of human existence that keeps us evolving and thinking and functioning in a somewhat sane fashion, if sane is a word that can realistically be used to describe the human race. But that's a different, and very long, blog post.

And of course I am referring here to the (insert your own superlative adjective) election of Barack Obama yesterday, which by all accounts, mine included, is a wonderful thing for the planet earth in general, and the US in particular. People are rightly rejoicing, dancing in the streets and singing from the mountain tops because after 8 years of Bush, we're all walking a little funny. I too have bought into the notion of Obama. I voted for him, I've had the spine tingle listening to him speak, and he has given me hope and optimism about the future of America. Above all, what the election of Obama has given me is a renewed sense of pride in America; not a sense of hope, I've always had that (though someone just threw a log on the fire), but one of optimism that we can and will get America back on the right track in the near future.



But one thing that I've heard and read frequently over the past two days pisses me off. It's these people who say 'I'm no longer ashamed to be an American!' Ashamed? Really? Did you wretch every morning when you woke up and were, ugh, STILL American? I know these are heady times, but please spare me the drama.

More often than not this is from other expats who recite tales of being scared to admit their nationality to any 'locals,' or doing so with the utmost shame. But the only tension is generally from their own point of view. I've travelled a fair bit to a fair number of countries, and mostly during the period of time when W was taking a big dump on the world and wiping his ass with the good-standing of the US, and never once have I encountered any hostility. As others have noted, most countries of the world do a pretty good job distinguishing between the US government (bad), and the US people (not so bad). And if they confront you as to the state of your nation, more often than not it's to get an insider's point of view rather than to berate or threaten you. Most nations have a lot longer history than the US, and have gone through worse crap than we're going through right now.

For a lot of foreign people, the US is an amazing country whose unique, exciting, intriguing, contradictory, diverse and invigorating elements manage to outweigh our dumb president and our recent general clumsy nature, to put it lightly. Some folks would do well to realize/remember this fact.

So I'm curious about what these people are so ashamed of, because really nothing has changed yet. If they are ashamed of our role in Iraq, our economy in shambles, our shell of a reputation and our steadily fading role as a world leader, the state of our schools, our dependence on foreign oil, then what has changed overnight to instantly cure these ailments? It's taken more than 8 years to create the mess we've made of our country, and it'll take more than one man and one term in office to clean it all up. If your identity and pride as an American hinges solely on whether George Bush is in the White House, forgive me for not quite taking you seriously.

Like I said I'm 100% behind Obama and his message, but the man isn't a magician (is he???). I hope all of these suddenly unashamed Americans have a little more patience when it comes to actually solving the problems that we face in America.