world views - Bush, burgers, and borders

Gael asked me last night if it would bother me if he watched TV while I was working in the same room. My response was "No, of course not!" figuring that I could tune out the white-noise of the French news channel, speaking French way to fast and with a vocabulary too complex for me.

This was perhaps the first time I was stoked to be distracted by the television.

I certainly didn't catch everything when I sat down to watch, but I followed so much more than I ever have before, and I was quite excited.

And then I was sad to discover that the news channels are really all the same depressing stories of misfortune and fluke incidents that make people scared to leave their houses.

But a bit came on about the debate over the new triple-fence on the border of Mexico, and this piqued my interest. Indeed, one of the first images was of our very own Tijuana Estuary.

I became obviously frustrated by the issue, which piqued Gael and Karine's interest, so at dinner I brought it up and explained what they're proposing, and why it's a terrible idea for the ecology of the Tijuana area (from what I understand/remember, it would involve levelling the hill and destroying the estuary, which houses some rare and valuable species), the irony that we don't even have ONE working fence (note holes all over the place) and they want to put in some extreme triple-mess, and furthermore how I feel about the allocation of so much money in the wrong area. Why can't we explore further why the issue of immigration is such a problem, why people so desperately want in sometimes, and take some steps to find our global/economic role in that to help the real problem? I also explained how interesting it is, and not as politically-correct, that our economy is incredibly dependent on the labor of illegal immigrants, and yet we are so unwelcoming to them.

[I've recently discovered www.pandora.com as a great resource for music, and I have it playing right now as I write... interesting timing: The Decemberists just came on with 16 Military Wives, singing, "Because America can and America can't say no. And America does if America says it's so. "]

I had been frustrated by our canyon guide Manu's comment to me about Americans being less-than-cool but that they'd let me stay on the trip because I was an okay American - among other less-than pc comments, such as the one about my goofy wetsuit hiding something he supposed to be nicer inside. (Mind you, the rest of the guide team was awesome, kind, helpful and very respectful).

So with this in the back of my mind needing some resolution, I asked Gael and Karine about the perceptions of Americans in France. Interestingly, they expressed that the vision of our President is held separately from the American people in general. Bush is seen as a five-year-old (with language skills to match) who thinks he can just play with the world, and a sort of puppet for other politicians. Americans, however, are seen for what they export - McDonalds, big cars, and bad TV.

This was a lot of negatives about the states, which is something I've felt very sensitive about - simply because I don't want to propagate a negative view of my home (it's all too easy to be seduced and jump on the "America sucks" bandwagon - but I refuse). I know at this point that my roomates understand this, so I felt comfortable talking quite freely - and I have also emphasized to them many times how there are tons and tons of people who feel just like me, who are just like me, in the States, and they understand (especially having spent time in Canada and the States) that it is a very big place full of lots of very different people. Indeed, that is one thing that is so great about it. And I will continue to remind the people I talk to here, and myself, of just that fact.

It was fascinating and exciting to have my first real, long, and elaborate political discussion in French, but also a bit overwhelming. Clearly there are some things I can't do anything about. I can't keep out McDonald's, malls, bad TV. But what I can do is present and promote an America that is and wants to be better, and remind the few people around me that it exists. Just as there are French people such as our canyon guide, there are French people like my roomates and my incredible language professor Mme Bortot, and Benedicte our program director...

I find myself thinking back quite often to a conversation I had with Federico, an Italian graduate student at SIO, after I came back from Australia and had been accepted to the Grenoble program. I had walked with a good friend of mine in an embarassingly small peace rally (Cindy Sheehan actually spoke at the end!) at UCSD, and was still wearing a sticker reading "Regime change now." Federico was disappointed at first thinking that I was expending energy in the wrong area calling for impeachment. He expressed that it is a waste of energy, and that it is better to look forward to the next election and push for regime change then. The language barrier and a couple of beers fogged the issue a bit - I think we were more on the same page than he thought. Nevertheless, it was fascinating listening to what he had to say - essentially how lucky I am to be American and have so much of a say in my government. In Italy, it is nothing like that. In the States, if something goes terribly wrong (check!), if we don't like what a politician does (check!), we can change it (umm.. soon to be a "check," I hope!).

After my few months in Australia carefully correcting every person who asked if I was American that I am in fact Californian, I became a little embarrassed. Why was I so embarrassed to be American? It has certainly painted a hideous image of itself in the past few years, with the flag-waving justifying some real injustices - but I have just as much of a right to wave that flag (take it back, if you will), if not more - we were built on the right to criticize and disapprove of our government, and thus be able to change it, right? Check.

So I hope that in the few small encounters I will have here I can help even just a few people to see that America is a diverse and beautiful country filled with people to match. The bad will come whether I want it to or not - for my part, there is another America that I will strive to import.