Travel to France? Mais, non!

There was little in the way of attempts to formally organize a boycott of France. There were a few web sites, a bit of activism that 99% of Americans probably never heard of. The US government never talked about such a thing, nor did either political party. No "leader" tried to make this happen.

But millions of Americans care about their nation, and won't reward its enemies, especially those who hypocritically claim to be friends so they can get close enough for a back-stab.

The people of the United States are many and are powerful. We lend some of that power to our government, but we retain even more. Our government serves us, but does not rule us.

Most of the time we let our government speak for us, but we can speak for ourselves. Each individual voice is very small, but if enough of us commit to something, it is impossible to ignore. We can directly reward friends and directly punish enemies. We don't need our government's permission and our government can't stop us, because though the US government is the most powerful in history and more powerful than any other in the world, we are even more powerful yet and will replace the US government if it tries to do so. That is part of the power we retained, and every two years the government submits itself to us for reapproval.

The leaders of other nations ignore the "American Street" at their peril. They have the ability to decide to oppose this nation. That is their choice to make. But there is a real price to be paid for deeply angering the people of this nation, and the cost of doing so can substantial, and long lasting. We are slow to anger, but once that happens we are not easily mollified.

Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. It's hardly surprising that the French have been blind-sided by this. They've never really understood why it is that we do not think that cowboy is an insult when applied to us or our leaders, why we Americans, whether native-born or immigrant, think of that as a compliment. And until they understand that, they'll never truly understand why it is that Americans are unwilling to forgive what France has done to us.

den Beste at his best

The French cannot understand how a polyglot country like the United States can actually have a national character, or that the United States has advanced further in its 200 plus years of existance than France has in its centuries. The average American sees the French actions of recent times as the profoundest ingratitude, backstabbing of the worst sort. We've always known that the French were impolite, arrogant, rude and smelly. We put up with it because France, on the whole, is a beautiful country, full of places and things to see.

But now they've gone too far. We'll look at Omaha Beach the next time we have to liberate France from some dictator that they surrendered to. We'll wander the estates, marvel at the museums, the next time the French roll over on their backs to whore for yet another conquorer, and we have to bail them out of their mess. Oh, we'll come; that's also part of the American character. But until then, England is just as nice. And the wines of the Finger Lakes rival the best of France.

-- posted by Chuck at Monday, August 11, 2003 | E-mail | Permalink | Main | 0 comments

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Monday, August 11, 2003

Travel to France? Mais, non!