"Sarah Banick" wrote in message
news:Q-udnV3N55hjB7XanZ2dnUVZ_gudnZ2d@comcast.com...
>
> >> Sounds like you need to get out and meet some different people. As to
why
> >> so many believe it -- it's beat into us from early childhood, at
school,
> >> church, Scouts, etc. I'm sure people in other countries receive
similar,
>
> >
> > I would not use the word *beat* into us.
>
> Poetic license :-)
>
> And I voucher I am much older than
> > you; but we were taught in school about American History and celebrate
> > national holidays which usually are about something of which we are
proud.
> > Our parents also made us realize how much better we were off by telling
us
> > the hardships that they experienced before coming here.
>
> Yep. Whenever I tried to get my grandmother to talk about "the old
country,"
> she'd shrug and say "Why do you want to know about that? We're in America
> now."
>
>
> >
> >> The thing is, most (not all) hardworking Americans, especially the ones
> >> without passports, spend their free time raising children, going to
ball
> >> games and church, shopping for food and clothes, watching sitcoms and
cop
> >> shows, fixing up the house......they aren't thinking about global press
> >> freedom rankings, broadband internet penetration rate, the timeline of
> >> gay rights progress, or the index of technological achievement, to name
a
> >> few. They are thinking about what's for dinner, or whether there is
> >> enough money to go to the beach for vacation.
> >>
> >> In fact, I'll venture to say that the majority of hardworking people in
> >> any country aren't really thinking about those things, until they
> >> directly affect their family or friends.
> >
> > I very much agree to the above, but these are not the Americans that
> > people judge our country by...they judge us by Hollywood and politicians
> > who are not at all what average Americans are...even those with
passports
> > who frequently travel.
>
> That's the whole point of travelling -- to go beyond the stereotypes. The
> most important thing I've learned in my travels is that people just want
to
> live their lives and raise their families, be they rich, poor, communist,
> socialist, muslim, christian, jewish, or whatever.
>
>
Yep, that's what it always boils down to.
Surreyman
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