On Going to France

Packing My Culture Away

My husband and I are planning to go to Paris the last week in September. In the past few days, I have been going through my wardrobe looking for the least "American-looking" items to take. Then it hit me, I am embarrassed to be recognized abroad for what I am, and that makes me mad. Now I could take it out on the French and order freedom fries my first day there.

Instead my anger is reserved for the things my country has come to represent:

*voracious consumption of just about everything but humility
*being led by a macho frat boy who refuses to accept reality or responsibility
*failure as the richest nation of all time to provide children with basic tools for success
*racism barely hidden under a thin crust of inclusion rhetoric
*hypocrisy in the application of the ideals that helped to make us great

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame the US for everything wrong in the world. I don’t see us as especially evil by historical standards. I am actually proud of a lot of what America has accomplished in creating a viable nation from a steady stream of immigrants.

It’s just that we could be so much better. I have to believe that if I’m to muster the political will to fight for change. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said there can’t be great disappointment without great love. I am greatly disappointed, but also determined, even after all these years.