Job Discussion Forums

[Capergirl]

All of a sudden, the moderators come running....



To Kill an American


You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one. (Good on ya, mate!!!!)

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country.! As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.


Author unknown

[Communist Smurf]

[High Plains Drifter]

Thank you very much, Capergirl! It's nice to know that not all Canadians think we're evil.

[Gordon]

[Shaman]

[skeptic]

[nawlinsgurl]

I've always thought Capergirl was pretty darn cool.

[mjed9]

[davavo]

Surely they are just more sophisticatedly controlled by their respective corporations / governments to be given an illusion of freedom.

My heads a bit scrambled right now. But i beleive the above author, granddady of sociology, may have mentioned something about the moe aware we are of our society, the more enslaved we are by it. I concur, mjed9, but 'control' is a construct of understanding, that which we understand, illustrates our freedom.

The irritating thing about americans (and british for that matter, though to a less brutally oblivious extent) is the hypocrasy, and the unbelievable ability to brush off millions of dead folk with an innane grin at the camera.

The culture is bankrupt, the poor buggers cant tell the truth from lies. But im not listening to the excuses anymore.

There are opinions that create and justify support for the likes of bush. And someone with the intellectual horizons of an american, is the last person who should be allowed a vioce. Gag them, and send them home.

[David Bowles]

The Australian's reply is completely understandable as a response to yer actual real death threats, but as a general statement on the situation it's not great. If America=Freedom, then anyone who declares themselves against America (whether government, society or both) must be an Enemy of Freedom. Given this cartoon bad-guy designation, 'they' can then be dealt with with appropriately cartoony violence- the only problem being that 'they' are actually human beings. Skip the final part of that sentence and you have a reasonable summing up of all Dubya's speeches on terror...

[High Plains Drifter]

[nomadder]

Travelling thru Latin America I have to laugh at the "free" Americans sneaking into Cuba from Mexico and then cleaning their luggage of any vestiges of their trip.
Then there are the Latin Americans who may no longer be free to use coca leaves for tea or to chew(perfectly harmless) and long a part of their culture. But because some fools in America and elsewhere have a coke problem then their plants should be eradicated? Any help they�ve ever given has been cancelled out by destruction and it generally comes with strings attached.

The more people declare something to be true, the less it is. Propaganda.
I am an American as is anyone from Canada to the tip of South America but I don't align myself with the policies or culture of the United States(a country that couldn't even come with a name for itself-just an inaccurate description).

[mjed9]

[extoere]

davavo: Location: Environment

Under a rock?

cheers,
extoere

[Roger]

Capergirl,
I realise you are only copying someone else's writing, but it sound as though you want to push it down everybody's throat: America the "generous", America the "good", America the "successful", etc.
It's such propagandistic claims that rile non-Americans the most.
America had no business interfering with the Russians' advance in Afghanistan; in the same category America also tried to keep the Chinese communists from seizing power in Peking - and they miserably failed because they sided with the wrong thugs. These criminals were then posted in Burma and logistically supported in infiltrating China and flooding China with drugs until the 1970s.

And America is by no means the "most generous" donor - that title goes to the Dutch; of course, this is in a per capita sense, but doesn't that matter more than absolute numbers that hide many unwilling "donors"?