Are we actually going to start talking jive about leaving?\u00a0 Just when things get crisp?\u00a0 If this is a test, then it is surely a multiple-choice test wrapped in an essay and almost certainly to be punctuated by some oral examinations.\u00a0 Prior to these attacks, I would talk openly about my intentional & eventual departure from the United States.\u00a0 For an amalgam of reasons, it represented more a traveler\u2019s attitude a la Jake then an abandonment complex.\u00a0 Prior to these events, I had a nebulous yet pungent sense that, as a US citizen, I was viewed very negatively thru out the world.\u00a0 Having such close friends & ties to Oh Canadia, I heard stories such as: “If you’re ever in a tight situation overseas that\u2019s going to turn horrifically grim, just claim to be a Canadian.\u00a0 Under no circumstances should you boast American heritage.”\u00a0 But such was the stuff of colorful conversation, backed by no real concrete animosity TOWARDS the US.\u00a0 It was just one more tale in a saga that literally (ok, in analogy) saw the US scorned like a bad lieutenant with too much power, too often wielded to service his own ends.\u00a0 As an American, I was lumped into that category and brandished the same.\u00a0 Again, I was apprehensive about my perception abroad as an American.\u00a0 Therefore, I sought the day when I could travel so far abroad and for such a period of time that I would be able to see what the baby & the bathwater looked like.\u00a0 From the outside.\u00a0 To be sure, I believed that my US education had raised me to see with an Americans\u2019 eye what the only the inside of an American cocoon looked like.\u00a0\u00a0 As well, that this ego-centric, fiscal-driven, quasi-colonist mentality I began to develop sometime after puberty was, for the most part, transparent to the majourity of my fellow Americans, but painfully clear to the rest of the world.\u00a0\u00a0 I was going to alter this with a world-view.\u00a0 I was going to combat this with a mind more open then it was cynical.\u00a0 But I grew complacent.\u00a0 I began to seek more tangible goals such as (perceived) economic gain, or (simulated) social status.\u00a0 My goals became those bettering myself and the woman I love.\u00a0 Introversion.\u00a0 Isolationism away from those odd feelings concerning what it felt like to be an American living in America.<\/p>\n
Until today.\u00a0 Until the Right Now.\u00a0 Until the conversations getting tossed back & forth these past 72 hours.\u00a0 Not only between the leaders of the world, but also between the Circus \u2013 some of the only constants I can rely on right now.\u00a0 Long-dormant thoughts are coming to the surface.\u00a0 Viewpoints once thought to be reactionary or counter to the views of the many are finally being expressed.\u00a0 Spades will be called spades and it will be a long and arduous road.\u00a0 History, both revisionist and sacred will be examined.\u00a0 What you hold to be truths & your rights as humans will be tempered against those who have been denied and can only hope for those same unalienable rights.\u00a0 Shame on you if you think I am in any way justifying the actions of those who would commit such atrocities in their pursuit of these rights.\u00a0 This is the shocking jolt.\u00a0 This is the rude awakening.\u00a0 This is the point in the existence of this country where the truth be told that we, as the United States, are no different for we have committed the same such atrocities.\u00a0 Albeit thrice removed.\u00a0 Atrocious that we should continue to call our foreign policy one of peace KEEPING.\u00a0 However you view the US intentions overseas, one only need look at the suffering that continues in those same lands despite these dollars & peace accords.\u00a0 One only needs to look at the severe breakdown within our own nation to realize that our current foreign policy is nothing short of re-arranging the deckchairs on the titanic.\u00a0 How many more of OUR dollars will be spent hunting down faceless symptoms of an overseas religious war before an American teacher gets a fiscal recognition?\u00a0 How many more people have to die?<\/p>\n
You think that the current US military deployments to go about \u201cending states who sponsor terrorism\u201d will EVER bring about peace in the Middle East?\u00a0 It will only spread it thinner.\u00a0 It will not be addressing THEIR issues and THEIR resolutions.\u00a0 And here is something that will really bake your noodle:\u00a0 Try and wrap your brains around the possibility that the attacks on our soul were borne OF our soil.\u00a0 Think about that.\u00a0 Remember Oklahoma and how cruel & misguided our initial assumptions were.\u00a0 Just: what if?<\/p>\n
I talk as if there is actually some shred of hope that the US will take the high road.\u00a0 That they will do the right thing by cooling off and taking a levelheaded human approach to this.\u00a0 It won\u2019t happen.\u00a0 As I snap this rant off, the engines are revving up and the fog is getting mixed.\u00a0 When the shit starts, you & I, as Americans, will only know what we are spoon-fed.\u00a0 The path we take, regardless of accuracy or lack thereof, will be touted as justification and rectification.\u00a0 Even so-called credible non-US sources such as the AP, BBC or CBC(!) will have little recourse but to run with whatever direction the momentum dictates.\u00a0 And you wont know the difference.\u00a0 And the rift that caused this most-recent link in a long chain of events will continue to fester.\u00a0 Only clich\u00e9s will suffice.\u00a0 Eye for an Eye.\u00a0 But the real adage will be clear only after a painfully long distance of time & blood:\u00a0 That wrongs do not negate wrongs.\u00a0 That the path to peace must now be viewed in terms of the path less traveled.<\/p>\n
But hell, if shit gets funky in here, I got plenty of room up in Ontario.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bring the fishing tackle; you bring the propane & the Molson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are we actually going to start talking jive about leaving?\u00a0 Just when things get crisp?\u00a0 If this is a test, then it is surely a multiple-choice test wrapped in an essay and almost certainly to be punctuated by some oral examinations.\u00a0 Prior to these attacks, I would talk openly about my intentional & eventual departure … Continue reading going to canada<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4,38,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.archibaldjude.com\/spew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}