What am I, chopped liver?
Sep. 17th, 2008 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI keep hearing the McCain campaign, in the voice of Sarah Palin, and her sympathisers and supporters, saying that she has some secret insight to, "real America" by virtue of being from someplace not contaminated by urbanity.
I, it seems (and those like me), somehow don't count as a real american. Never mind the summer I spent digging ditches, and stripping paint and shingling roofs. Nope, manual labor doesn't cut it.
Ignore sixteen years in the National Guard (and a tour in Iraq, and duty overseas in Germany, Korea and Ukraine). Ignore my father the Marine (1964-68 active, and another eight years in the reserves). Forget my grandfather who was in WW1.
Nope, not good enough.
Helping my folks start a small business (still going strong 24 years later). Nope, not good enough.
I, you see, like most americans, live in a city. I, therefore, am somehow not quite the real thing when it comes to being an American.
About a year ago someone at Obidian Wings saw the same thing, and wondered the same sort of thing I'm asking about now,
"When do I get to be one of the "American people?"
I, it seems (and those like me), somehow don't count as a real american. Never mind the summer I spent digging ditches, and stripping paint and shingling roofs. Nope, manual labor doesn't cut it.
Ignore sixteen years in the National Guard (and a tour in Iraq, and duty overseas in Germany, Korea and Ukraine). Ignore my father the Marine (1964-68 active, and another eight years in the reserves). Forget my grandfather who was in WW1.
Nope, not good enough.
Helping my folks start a small business (still going strong 24 years later). Nope, not good enough.
I, you see, like most americans, live in a city. I, therefore, am somehow not quite the real thing when it comes to being an American.
About a year ago someone at Obidian Wings saw the same thing, and wondered the same sort of thing I'm asking about now,
"When do I get to be one of the "American people?"
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-17 01:17 pm (UTC)As for cities- I prefer them. I can still grow tomatoes, and hear birdsong, rake leaves, collect pecans, and do lots of wonderful things in my city- and not have to drive 30 miles to be insulted in a Wal-Mart (Me: got Plan B? Them: Baby-killer!). Cities give you variety, and choice. Cities attract interesting people and food.
I like the countryside, and would love to have a little patch of land to take care of- but the countryside is now more deeply owned by corporate interests than the cities are. At least I know that Chesapeake can't come up and plug a frickin' gas drill in my yard in the city. They did on my dad's property in the country, and the noise, busted roads and spoiled water are really pissing people out there off.
Gimme the city. Please.