America...

Every time the 4th comes around, and I avoid watermelon like the plague, it's fun. With sparklers and beer, and friends, and the taste of smoke on all my food.

After the 4th I'm usually really contemplative.

I became an adult on military bases overseas, in two of the three countries that were once called the Axis powers. So after being all 'American' I always feel a little weird. My first job paid half in Dollars and half in Euros. American money looks weird to me still(why is it all green?! Do you know how hard it is to find the right bill when they're all the same size and color after living in countries that do differently?! Gah!) sometimes.

Sitting here enjoying left over Japanese potato salad (recipe here for anyone who wants a nice change in the potato salad routine. I add a dollop of sour cream or mayo to make it smoother) it occurs to me that I both hate and enjoy being a third culture kid. I made JAPANESE potato salad for an AMERICAN celebration. (everyone together now: d'oh!)

Sometimes I don't know what it means to be American. I know what it meant to my host cultures while growing up. It meant being loud, rich, stubborn, and hopelessly prideful, but ultimately good despite all our glaring faults.

I think being an American might mean this:

1. Constantly messing with the English language. (with words like Epicosity, gnarly, and using things like 'bad' to express things that are 'good')

2. Competition, or a competitive spirit in some area. I think this is something our ancestors passed on to us.

3. Television. I dare anyone to disagree with this. It's a huge cultural thing to talk about what we saw on TV. Whether it's some drama, scifi, or news scoop, we probably didn't read about it or hear it on the radio.

So, what do you guys think makes America what it is and it's people who they are?

Censorship- Don't Duckt Tape Momma

A long time ago I did a little speech on Censorship in America. Being my first speech class ever it was pretty lame, I tried to get the class riled up about it. But they were all born and raised christian so I don't think they saw censorship as one of the ultimate evils of government as I do. To them it was something required to protect the public from 'evil' or something.

This is before I found evidence of christians being censored. They would've cared then.

Anyway my focus was on the media. How after 9-11 they wouldn't air any Pokemon episodes with buildings getting hit or blown up by anything or even had the word 'tower' in their name because "It was too frightening for children"! Also how many books get banned for things like "the word demon was in page 78 of 600 pages; it was a spiritual reference". Who cares?! If a kid has a question they should be able to ask mom and dad about it... oh wait it's America mom and dad are gone all day working for what I don't know.

As a kid I was introduced to the concept of censorship when a Chinese girl, Rayray, lived with us for something like 4 months (I was 7 time wasn't important if it was over hour increments). My parents were great about letting me know things, so instead of keeping the conversation she wanted to have with out house guest on the down low she let me be privy to it. My mom asked what Rayray thought about what had happened in Tiananmen square.
Rayray promptly replied that what my mom thought had happened never happened. It's all foreign propaganda, her country told her so and communists never lie to their people.

WTF?!

Censorship in moderation sure. Keep that bad mouthed dude's words out of the mouths of our 5 year olds. We don't really need to be seeing people bump uglies on prime time tv. And having every single organ for display as the killer does his deed is overkill. (haha pun!)
But turning off a little girl's microphone because she says 'Jesus' in a nonironic way, taking out scenes from cartoons because we can't let our kids have any kind of practice dealing with emotions till their 10, and taking great works like 'where the sidewalk ends' off the shelves because it might, maybe, have a spiritual reference in it is stupid.

Just like it's stupid that hate groups have the right to keep their blogs but a cop who posts what her day was like get's her posts censored and doesn't even know why. Not only that but to yank her whole site and offer it up to anyone on the internet. To keep my rage to a minimum and avoid being the kind of blogger I dislike, I slept on the information I received. Thought up my response and what it should look like, sound like, how much of my emotion was superfluous. Because, this is an issue near and dear to my heart.
Why in America of all places should there be censorship?! Freedom of speech within the box other people allow? And this leads into another issue near and dear to my heart that I may screech about later.

The loudest voice gets heard, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and those of us with enough personal scruples not to go around whining like bitches every time we see something that offends us are the ones who get the raw end of the deal. Those of us who are honest that we can understand one side of the argument get chastised. People who just say what's on everyone else's mind get shafted. While the whacko off the wall minority guy who offends EVERYBODY get's some kind of diplomatic immunity. Go watch Lethal Weapon if you don't know how this could be a bad thing.

Blogger I'm amazed at you. If I'd heard, "hey they sent her an email that the blog was censored because it was found to be [state reason here]" I would be understanding, you're a company and sadly because of things I said I wouldn't screech about you have to cover your butt a lot I'm sure. But no you didn't, instead you're also censoring the fact that your censoring by not letting her post about it! What's the deal?! No really I want to know. Because come a time when some random christian or nonchristian group runs across a blog I may write about why I think they're psycho I want to know whether or not you're going to have my back or if I should take my thoughts elsewhere.

Dear Corporate America

Dear Corporate America,
My throat would love it if you would stop forcibly shoving Christmas down it. Quite honestly pine trees don't go down very smoothly and the blood trail, though matching with the holiday color scheme, is really bad for my carpet.
Couldn't you wait until the day after Thanks Giving, or for heaven's sake November first? It's really disconcerting to see a Christmas tree in the middle of bat and witch shaped cookies.
I mean you're confusing the little kids. They're going to think that Santa is some demon who comes down the chimney to suck their blood.
It would be really nice if you could try not to look so eager to take every penny of our hard earned cash. We might forget how greedy and overpriced you are if you respect the Holidays and stop putting Santa hats on Turkeys and Christmas lights over the fake blood and gore.
Sincerely a very annoyed ex-customer.