America
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:13 amI don't want to turn this into something more than it is but thought I'd put it out there as a "hey, here's something different".
I was at a NYE party last night with, in hindsight, and interesting mixture of nationalities and cultures. We had an Iranian, Aussies :-P, a Texan .. no I'm not setting up for a joke. Anyhow I'm in the south, not the deep south but south enough so the rest of the party was made up of people from Tennessee, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
What is that about not discussing politics at parties? Well toward the end of the evening the Texan, who is a great guy and quite aware of his own roots. Starts lightly talking about the up coming presidential elections. I was interested to hear what they all had to say as I had been exposed to some of the candidates over the past few months. The discussion went fairly well (I thought) until the majority of the people moved off to "refill their drinks because of social discomfort". I was quite happy to talk more about the elections.
Now here is the interesting thing. Between syphoning off his spittle from the tobacco he was dipping* (I kid you not). This larger than life Texan let's me know that he would like Ron Paul to get the presidencey.. because... he wants to bring the troops home, close down all the worldwide US military bases and get America to focus on looking out for it's own issues. And the reason behind it: He felt America tries to push itself on other nations to say this is the best, do it this way.
I had to smile to myself. Sure it was talk at a party, sure Ron Paul may never do any of the things that he says, sure I could be cynical about a lot of things ... but I was excited. Here was a guy who on the outside might seems like the typical Texan (which is no derision) and who you might assume proudly supports the US occupation. But no, he just wants them to fix the country he lives in - not for himself, he does quite well - but for as he put it "all the children who went to bed hungry tonight".
Anyhow just thought I'd share that with anyone who cares to read it. It certainly gave me a good feeling and dispelled some of the misconceptions I had. If one person is thinking like that there must be more and here's hoping that something changes.
*dipping tobacco is akin to chewing it however the difference being that you put a "wad" in the side of your mouth and blast your brains with nicotine.
I was at a NYE party last night with, in hindsight, and interesting mixture of nationalities and cultures. We had an Iranian, Aussies :-P, a Texan .. no I'm not setting up for a joke. Anyhow I'm in the south, not the deep south but south enough so the rest of the party was made up of people from Tennessee, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
What is that about not discussing politics at parties? Well toward the end of the evening the Texan, who is a great guy and quite aware of his own roots. Starts lightly talking about the up coming presidential elections. I was interested to hear what they all had to say as I had been exposed to some of the candidates over the past few months. The discussion went fairly well (I thought) until the majority of the people moved off to "refill their drinks because of social discomfort". I was quite happy to talk more about the elections.
Now here is the interesting thing. Between syphoning off his spittle from the tobacco he was dipping* (I kid you not). This larger than life Texan let's me know that he would like Ron Paul to get the presidencey.. because... he wants to bring the troops home, close down all the worldwide US military bases and get America to focus on looking out for it's own issues. And the reason behind it: He felt America tries to push itself on other nations to say this is the best, do it this way.
I had to smile to myself. Sure it was talk at a party, sure Ron Paul may never do any of the things that he says, sure I could be cynical about a lot of things ... but I was excited. Here was a guy who on the outside might seems like the typical Texan (which is no derision) and who you might assume proudly supports the US occupation. But no, he just wants them to fix the country he lives in - not for himself, he does quite well - but for as he put it "all the children who went to bed hungry tonight".
Anyhow just thought I'd share that with anyone who cares to read it. It certainly gave me a good feeling and dispelled some of the misconceptions I had. If one person is thinking like that there must be more and here's hoping that something changes.
*dipping tobacco is akin to chewing it however the difference being that you put a "wad" in the side of your mouth and blast your brains with nicotine.
