reply to ben's reply to my Snapple-rape entry

i couldn’t reply in the same post, so here is the reply from before – if you’re not a fan of political conversations, patriotism, or cheese, don’t continue.

you’ve been warned.

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I wanna reply jovially but I cant.

You want us to be proud of our wastefulness and indifference? You lecture on rape and then applaud people spending more time on Snapple then it takes to complete that horrible action.

K, I didn’t ‘lecture’. I expressed. And the Snapple thing is bittersweet. I don’t applaud the fact; but I do appreciate it. DESPITE it. I think capitalism has gone way too far here. Waaaaay too far. Nonetheless, there are many things about the country I’m more than happy to celebrate. By comparing Snapple choices to rape (oh, that sounds so crass!) I was showing how much we don’t even realize how we live compared to some other parts of the world. Even people in England wish they had more Snapple flavors… (maybe my laid-back method of expression isn’t coming across well).

Of course I’m rejoice on a daily basis that I don’t have to live with those unfathomable scenarios. I’m proud of the freedom we have, that the founding fathers of this great nation created what is probably the most flexible and accommodating system of government that has graced the face of this earth. And beyond that they paid for its creation with their lives.

K, so what I was trying to show was this: we don’t have to always think about ‘founding fathers’ when ‘rejoicing’ about ourselves, our upbringing, our country. We can look at silly American traditions and laugh instead of getting political ALL the time. We have some decent characteristics, you know.

We live in a time when we single handedly can reshape the face of this earth though cooperation and hard work.

Hold the phone! When did you become pro-unilateral action? (‘single handedly reshape the face of the earth? I think you’ve alluded to Mr. Bush saying a similar thing?) And ‘single-handedly’ and ‘cooperation’ don’t make English sense. They don’t make American sense either.

We can lift this small blue dot to heights unimaginable. Yet we are cursed with a populous that cant think outside their own person.

Guess what? PEOPLE can’t think outside their own person. PEOPLE. Humans. The Americans, the Peruvians, the Iranians, the Taiwanese, the Antarcticans… Everyone on the ‘blue dot’. Why? Because that’s the way we’re programmed most of the time – I’m not saying we’re only selfish, but – under extreme capitalism, ANYONE would be hording overpriced clothing from the J. Crew catalog. Ok, maybe heavy wool sweaters wouldn’t do an Egyptian much good, but you know.

Also, understand, that not everybody, including myself, believes in extreme capitalism. I do think America is heading for ruin. Anything extreme is just no good. But I’m not saying it’s a perfect country. I’m saying I find things to love and I do at times talk about loving it instead of just dwelling on politics and negativity all the time. And besides for that, some of us are trying for careers in making things better. Cuz they’re not better yet.

We are told too look down on the poor for being lazy, that the minorities are poor cause they are stupid.

Um, not in my American experience. I learned to give charity. I learned that we ‘give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.’ I was reading today, actually, that most of the world sees Americans, on a personal level, as some of the most charitable and good-willed people.

We look at the middle east and see a place to carptbomb, not to save. I go to work knowing that I am surrounded by co-workers who would rather have an extra buck in their pocket than help their fellow man. We should be hanging every murdering bastard in Darfur and instead we have people claiming that we needed a war in Iraq because Sadam wanted weapons even though we had successfully prevented him for the past decade.

This is too much politics for me to get into here. I could write another thesis based on that paragraph. We can do that one later.

I see our great nation and I cry for what the population has done to it. When will we live in a time when we look not for the best solution but the one that fits the bible the best?

What the population has done to it? Doesn’t population = nation, nation = population? Government. Government is a problematic institution. ANYWHERE.

Bible. Sigh. It’s true.

I love my country for the potential it contains and I despise my countryman for the promise he squanders.

You have an interesting way of separating countrymen from country. Actually, you’re not off on that. There are ways to do that. Yeah, ok. I’m wondering if by ‘countryman’ you mean ‘Bush voters’ (or ‘republicans’ or ‘devil worshippers’, whichever feels more comfortable).

If you are comfortable with loving this country because it allows us to be selfish monsters then you are complacent in your love.

Ha, Ben, I’m never complacent in any love. Relationships always need work.

I love America because it raised me. As I’ve written before, it was my ‘surrogate’ country until I leave in December. I appreciate the opportunity for a free education, for free practice of my beliefs, for choices, for great sports (though soccer is better), for having citizens who are known throughout the world for being charitable, for showing Sesame Street in Spanish as well as English, for ingenuity, for default diversity, for giving us a shot at being geeks in high school and famous in adulthood, for being only 230 years old and working through its shit – one freely elected president at a time.

To love this country is not to not to commend our slobbery but instead to wake up everyday ready to wrestle power from those who would actively smear our reputation though despicable policies, and that dear Liz is how I love this country.

Again, I commend no man’s slobbery. Especially Michael Moore’s. That just amazes and disgusts me.

C’mon, you know I told off that random guy about his SUV in the middle of the street (although at the time I didn’t realize his windows were open).

I wake up and read the newspapers (there are hundreds, by the way!) and I curse at the politicians I can’t stand and I appreciate the lone voices I agree with. I laugh over the frivolity of Hollywood, I bitch about actors who don’t share their wealth but talk up a storm of bullshit and get married and have babies on a whim. Where else can I curse at the impossible traffic and smile at the diverse radio personalities and just know that this love hate relationship I have with New York City, with the United States, with humanity: it’s life – and it’s not over if Bush gets re-elected and it’s not over if Kerry gets elected, because really, I, we, have the ability to work at making this place better, and at the same time, love it for it’s crazy naive young existence.


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