Maggie's Farm

NJ, about Western Europe, it's partly what you say about people resenting charity. But it's also that they have lived thru occupations, invasions, bombings of their homelands and seen many more of their civilian population killed, executed, imprisoned, maimed, tortured, etc. as a result of war than we have and so they are terrified of any actions we take that might lead to war again. I went to school in a building that had had half turned to dust by a WWII bomb.

There's an element of envy of America's relative immunity from such civilian suffering. And envy of our prosperity and space and natural resources and opportunities.

Also, we Americans are so rightly proud of God's country that we have often been boorish abroad. The ugly American syndrome is real. People who have lived amongst us want to stay, but those who observe American tourists and rapacious corporate types abroad are repelled.

When our family lived abroad, we went to the schools of the country, kept quiet about our American opinions, learned the language and showed respect for the culture and values of the country we were a guest in.

I don't mean to sound self-righteous, unpatriotic. The more I saw of other country's political and economic systems, the more I yearned to return home. But we Americans are not always good advertisements for our beloved country abroad. We are perceived as arrogant, ignorant, clumsy, greedy. It's analagous to the way evangelical Christians are often despised by the godless. Get to know the former, and you join them. But the initial impression is often negative.

No contest, NJ. I'd rather be in a lifeboat with you any day. It maddened me during years of exile that the highest compliment somebody would pay me would be to say "You know, you'd never guess you were a Yank!" GRRRRRR

The point is not that they are right to be anti-American, but to be like Caesar's wife.

For another analogy, when working in youth in a predominantly male profession, I was exasperated by the automatic negative assumptions made about me because of my gender. Not being a rabid feminist or PC twit, I didn't have a support group of the like minded to run to every time somebody assumed that my response to a challenge would be emotional, feeble-minded, irrational, etc. I just wanted to do my job. So I just worked hard, developed a thick skin, was exceptionally polite to my enemies, turned the other cheek, and used a lot of humor. You just can't let prejudice and envy get to you.

None of us do the right thing, as individuals or as a nation, to be popular. We do it because we are responding to a call higher than our limited individual sinful selves. As I tediously remind myself, when discouraged, Jesus cares more about our struggles to be holy, to carry out the tasks set us by God, not our personal happiness or popularity. Even our D of I talks about "the pursuit of happiness" rather than the possession of it.

Virtue is its own reward. Not in the sense of hoarding a sense of our own superiority (tho that is such a sinfully pleasant feeling) but in the sense that aligning oneself with the God's will, faithfulness to country, family, etc. is the only true freedom and peace to be found on this earth.

Forgive the preachiness, please. On my way to work. My kids are appalled by my one handed Crackberry writing...All I mean to say, is that you are worth ten of the anti-American critics. But that is why you must not lose sleep over their hostility. Draw comfort from your gospels. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. We have always been a city on a hill. A visible target.

Wasn't there a posting a while back on straw men?!

In any case, God loves everyone. American, Iraqi, EUropean and bickering commentators on blogs...

Our nation was founded, whether you like it or not, by people who believed it was their mission to a show a wicked world a better way. I have Red Indian as well as Puritan blood in me, and I know which I am more proud of...

The Puritan settlers were well aware of their own sinfulness but acted anyway, trying to build a new Jerusalem. Sneer if you like, but they were gutsy to leave a degenerate Europe. It serves us ill today, tho, to trash our relatives there. They are still family. And it's a dirty bird that fouls its own nest.

You can jeer at that Puritan sense of mission--perhaps your ancestors came over later, or were dragged over in chains and have no stake in it. It's your right in this free society to be cynical and snicker at whatever you please, even if it is courage and faith and vision that put us to shame.

Incidentally, I am poor, do not drink Scotch, loathe golf , and doubt any club would want me. I could care less what religion or race a person is so long as they love GOd and their neighbor, and can make me laugh.

When I write so clumsily about America having a special call, unique responsibilities in the world, I am not talking about club membership. Easy to demolish my opinions, I have to leave it to the underemployed or coupon clippers to have the time to polish their ramblings.

I absolutely agree with the stuff Habu writes about Europe expecting us to clean up their mess, and our natural desire to stay out of it all. But we cannot stay isolated, much as we might like to.

Surefire, you need to calm down. You called yourself something else last week, but your tone is still manic and hostile. Take your lithium, stop drinking, chill, buy a dog or cat so you have somebody to love, go to church and try listening and praying instead of ranting against people of faith, do whatever you need to do to to feel better about yourself, but stop flaming me. It is completely childish and unnecessary. If you are in therapy, try and figure out there why you need to attack me, point by point. But leave me alone. I have not harmed you, there is nothing of yours that I am interested in taking, and to rant at me is just bizarre. I am a complete stranger, you will never meeet me, and it is pointless for you to try and make me feel bad.

God is so much bigger than you are, but it seems that He frightens you. I pity you, tho I know you do not want my pity.

People are so much more complicated than you presently understand them to be.

By the way, since I have Red Indian blood in my veins I can call it whatever I please. I have no use for PC talk of any kind. It's my blood.

I was not insulting other commenters here, by saying I didn't have unlimited time to edit my comments. I was making the point that, as someone with a full time job, family, kids, and multiple community responsibilities, I have little time to polish and hone posts to a blog that , until becoming the brunt of your attacks, I found a welcome break from the work and worry of everyday life. If I were to craft each reaction to a post with an eye to avoiding your nit-picking and ad hominem attacks, I would never write another word. If I so offend you, nobody is forcing you to read me anyway...

Talk to you doctor about whatever it is I represent to you that so enrages you. Are you resentful of someone with an Ivy League education? Or someone who has lived all over the world? Or someone who is not afraid to admit their own imperfections? And does it give you a sense of superiority to pounce on typos and careless grammatical slips? When I publish work, I take pains to perfect it, but this stuff here is just play. Are you resentful of married women, and therefore do you delight in their weaknesses and troubles? Have you ever carried your own child in your arms and loved them? Are you afraid you never will? Does it bother you that I will pray for your troubled soul tonight?

I certainly hope somebody can help you. I do not like you, but I pray that God will guide you somewhere you can find some peace and some compassion for the weaknesses and imperfections of others.

Buddy, I look forward to your verses every day! Thank you!

Nice of her to flatter the blog so, but was it you that said that about Harvard (the link on her site says Bird Dog)?

Some of your best friends went there. I can think of one at least who finds the PC takeover of the place an occasion for sorrow rather than unholy glee. Leave the latter to those too stupid to get in as undergraduates.

Sorry to be a humorless jerk. So furious at the news.