The View From Above

As many of you already now (listen to me...I'm writing this as if thousands of people actually read this) I just returned from a week long trip to Canada, where I spent a wonderful week in Montreal. OK, it was actually 5 great days and one that really, really sucked bad...I mean, since when does it ever go from 60 and sunny to 20 and snowing on the 27th of April!!!! Global Warming my Ass...I didn't bring a coat, and I froze my tuckus off. I should lay blame for that squarely on the already square jaw of Al Gore...but I already blame him for losing the presidency in 2000. I mean come on...it was gift wrapped, AL. You had Clinton, economic prosperity, and you were running against a moron- but you had to make out with Tipper at the convention, bleech...

OK- enough of that. So anyway- Montreal!



Montreal is an amazing city. It's got old school European charm, and a modern flair. The people are friendly, and the restaurants and shops are amazing. Like everywhere else in Canada, they are nutty about hockey, and I had the good fortune of being there when "Les Habitants" were fighting for their playoff lives.

However, The best part of Montreal hands down is getting to see Susan. Susan is my friend for the last almost 20 years, and the last Prom date I ever had...she's also the only woman whose ever kept up with me doing vodka shooters...but she's got kids now, so we won't dwell on that one.

So for at least one fine evening last week, Susan left the kids with her wonderful hubby Patrick, and we found a swanky little restaurant and a fine bottle of Shiraz. The she asked me the best question I've been asked in quite sometime....

"Russ" she said "What in the hell is wrong with you Americans?"

Now from 2000-2008, I could have simply answered "Dubya" and we'd have been satisfied...but it's gone so far beyond the idiot from Texas anymore. We've gone beyond simply bullying the rest of the world to spread our own little blend of democracy (two creams and one sugar with mine, please) to ripping ourselves apart in the name of keeping our own form of rugged individualism alive and well.

You look at the news now, and I wonder..what the hell is wrong with us? We are moving from the land of the free, to the land of "papers please." We are so afraid of our own shadows and our own need for entitlements that we regularly create fearsome enemies, so those who swear to protect us can help to chip away at our rights. Just look, in the last 10 years, we've made enemies out of gays, lesbians, Hispanics, Muslims, and hell...anyone who pretty much isn't a white male follower of Jesus (and that's Jesus as in Christ, not the guy who cuts your lawn and trims the shrubs.)

What is wrong with us? Why is it so much easier to tear down, instead of build up? To hurt rather than help? To take life and happiness instead of spreading ideals and joy? What strikes me as odd, and it has for some time, is that those same folks who praise their piousness are the ones that strike out against the poor and the ones that look to build people up and out of their situations. Take the recent example of Glenn Beck railing against "social justice" and people like Jim Wallis who spend their lives worrying about the plight of the poor. Why...you might ask...because it might take a few bucks away from the wealthy.

I could go on and on...but the stuff in Arizona is still to aggravating to cover here, and i think that it might even exacerbate the point even more. I suppose if I had to answer her question...I'd point out that Canadians just seem to like one another, and have a degree of respect for positions which are not their own. They seem to get the idea that while there is an "i" in society, it's not the focal point of the word, but rather just an integral piece of making it all work for everyone.