5 March 2008
Patriotic to an ideal, not a country
Posted under places beginning with: J; Mississippi; Jackson .
This post comes to us from Lelia Katherine Thomas, an Australia-based artist. You can see samples of her work and read her blog at http://www.leliathomas.com
I have always firmly believed in the American Dream, that stark individuality that got the country off on the right foot. I am politically Libertarian, so I believe in private property, strong protection of civil liberties for all and free markets. To me, when I look back on American history, I seem very American in the way I think and live. Imagine my surprise, then, that to keep in line with my thinking, I have slowly but surely felt I cannot live in the country I was born. Today, I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I feel that actually makes me all the more American.
When one thinks about the world today, there is pretty well a before and after mark for September 11th. Before, I loved my country very much and could not have seen myself moving. I wanted to travel, but I could not entertain the thought of not going back to the land I was born in. After, however, things have seemed strange and foreign, as more small liberties slip through the cracks and corruption rears its all too familiar head.
It wasn’t a political vendetta that led me to leave America, however, despite my concerns. It was love and a want for seeing the world. At the age of nineteen, I made the fourteen-hour flight to Melbourne, and I didn’t have a clue of what to expect; I’d never even lived on my own before. I was also set to attend university.
It’s been two years since I left now, and I’ve only visited once. There is a pang of nostalgia at times, but it is often for things that no longer exist in America, anyway.
In the two years that I have been in Australia, on the outside looking in, these are just a few of the things I have learned:
- It is hard for the people to realize how bad their economy is (personally or in the competitive world market) if they don’t pay attention to exchange rates. When I came here, my dollar was worth $1.35 and more. Now, it is worth $1.05. It puts the problem into perspective.
- People outside of America are quick to judge us, but only because they think they know us from Hollywood. The region I come from, the southeast, is so poorly represented as backward, obese, wackily religious, poor and racist, that I sometimes get the oddest questions about my person beliefs, simply because of where I come from.
- Americans do not realize how cheap their goods are and how far their dollars actually can stretch, due to less taxation.
- Nor do they realize how much September 11th has actually cost them. Security detailing and overall feelings of calm are much different in the States from Australia and other countries. It is sad that the country that often believes itself to be freest is no longer that socially or economically.
- The press in America is not as free or as balanced as so many believe, and it’s proved (and is proving) dangerous.
I believe in the American Dream, the pursuit of individual happiness. For better or worse, my American Dream has led me outside of America. I’d like to think I’ll return one day, but at this point I cannot see myself doing that and still managing to retain my individuality. It’s hard to do that in a country that is standardizing itself through political correctness and enforcing that social thinking, more and more by law or media.
At this point, I feel I can’t go back, and that’s my American story.
I miss the green countryside, though, and southern accents. I miss my Costa Rican fiddle teacher, authentic Mexican food, cheap goods and unmistakably American sarcasm. But I can’t go back, for now, not until America rediscovers itself, if it even does.
2 Comments so far...
Jason Fraser Says:
8 March 2008 at 1:30 pm.
Interesting piece of writing. I’m not American or Australian but I recognise truth in your point about a misrepresented ‘South’, that extends no doubt to the image of Australia too. We reduce complex entities to words that we collect, own and erase at will. ‘America’ what does it mean? A seven letter word that starts and ends with an A. How else can I speak of ‘America’? What tools do I have to negotiate the complexity of what is meant by ‘America’? And yet I must speak about it. It is imperative.
Kristin L Says:
4 July 2008 at 1:23 pm.
I’m an American who’s lived the better part of the last 12 years in Germany. I understand what you are talking about with pre- and post-September 11th mentality. I was in Germany at the time, and by not experiencing the event from within America, nor experiencing it’s aftermath there, I am forever set apart from the culture and society I once called my own.
