How Un-American can you get?

[Thomas]

GAD, sorry to say I agree, and I am quite cynical about our species. But then, I try to hold out as much hope as I can.

I have a long-time friend who thinks that my cynicism is really optimism because, she says, I always seem to expect the best but am often disappointed by the worst of humankind.

[Glass_A_Day]

Indeed. As the song goes, "I don't know, I can't say, I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way."

[winoweenie]

Ignorance has no home. You can find it in every nook and cubicle in the world. Sorry about your friend and employee Roberto. WW

[stevebody]

Robert Heinlein, visionary, crank, and cockeyed optimist said, in his novel "Friday", "The first sign of the decline of a society is rudeness and the ability to simply disagree civilly". Amen. So freakin' what if the French don't agree with us about the need to invade Iraq? Going to a French restaurant and complaining about getting French waiter is like going to a whorehouse and complaining about promiscuity. The people in question were the sort of ignoramuses who would complain about something, no matter what the circusmstances.

Both sides of the war protests annoy me the hell out of me. The protesters because their self-righteous assumption of moral correctness pushes that button that is always pushed when anyone thinks they know it all. And the pro-war dinks because of the broad assumption that anyone who thinks the war is a bad idea cannot, prima facie, support the troops. I hate the freakin' war and I think George Bush is a tin-plated horse's ass but clearly see the need for action in the wake of 9/11. But I am also the step-dad of a Marine and would do anything to support the young people we've sent over there to risk death for our principles.

Why in hell cannot people just MIND THEIR OWN FREAKIN' BUSINESS? Shut up, for God's sake. The idea that everyone is entitled to every single one of our opinions, 24/7, is something our recent forebears would have thought was astonishing. Forums like this one, which exist only for the airing of opinions, are the legitimate avenue for civil disagreements. Personal conversations among friends, ditto. Belaboring a stranger in a restaurant, bus stop, shopping mall, or public park is simple rudeness, no matter how you dress it up. I take great delight in not patronizing French wines, restaurants, etc. but it's more a matter of aesthetics than politics. They don't care for us and hate it that most of the world speaks English instead of French? Kinda...pathetic, isn't it? But dissing your waiter with your mouth stuffed full of the enemy's boullaibase is kinda...pathetic, too.

[winoweenie]

A very insightful post SB. Our ability to both patronize and criticize with impunity sometimes crosses the boundry between good and bad taste. IMHO the clods were WAY over the line. WW

[tandkvd]

I agree that a person patronizing a French restaurant and wanting a non-French waiter is a few bricks shy of a load.

My problem is with people trying to hold on to there ancestrial identy while being born and bread in the great USA. i.e. French-American, African-American, Mexican-American, .....etc. I would be Dutch/German-American, c'mon I AM AN AMERICAN period! No hiphan required.

That being said, I have three brothers. One is married to a woman who's family's history is Mexican, and one brother's wife is Jamacan. My wife is English and a little Cherokee.

They keep saying they are going to go out one night to a restaurant as Sisters).

With this diverce family of different cultures we agree that we are all AMERICAN no hiphan required!

[This message has been edited by tandkvd (edited 04-05-2003).]