In a recent podcast that I started picking up on, the idea of what it’s like to be an american living in a foreign country was brought up. It’s a unique topic that requires a lot of careful consideration, and one that treads into territory that I often tend to publicly stray away from. It’s really hard to avoid though. While having dinner with a bunch of locals the other night, a group of them started to discuss the administration back in the states. It’s pretty safe to say that the current administration is less than favorable in this area, if not most of Canada.
The thing that struck me was the way that people apologized to me for saying the things that they were. This isn’t the first time that I’ve run into this either, but it is striking when it does happen. After all, I am from Iowa and I’m used to people bashing the state in which I grew up, but this is different. Granted that is the country of my birth and I harbor no ill feeling towards the place I call home, but this is politics. I come from a country full of dark spots in our history. There’s also a lot of good things too, and I’m not referring to the positive aspects of a capitalistic society. There’s a lot more, and I think probably some of the best of it can still be found in my hometown. At the same time, there’s a lot of bad elements too.
The most beautiful thing about the states is that I can publicly say that I agreed with a lot of the things these people were talking about.