America! F%#*& Yeah!

A year has passed since I left the United States to live abroad. On many occasions in that time I’ve been asked why I’m here. The answer to the question is always the same: Jimmy and I came to live in Argentina to have a rich cultural experience and to stretch our understanding of the world. There are many travelers and expats living in Buenos Aires and abroad. We often meet these people and have conversations about where we live now, where we are from and where we are going next. Some of them have strong emotional feelings about the United States of America, many positive, some negative. It is common for there to be an assumption that I feel as they do, which is often not so.

I wondered, after living here for a year, what it would be like to go home again. I never imagined it would be in any way a negative experience and it was not. For the record: I love the experience of living over seas, though Buenos Aires is far from my favorite place on Earth. I love the people I’ve met, the things I’ve seen and done, the opportunities I’ve been given to stretch myself intellectually, culturally, emotionally. I also love my country. I am an American. America is my homeland and it always will be. Yes, statistically America has more morbidly obese people than any other developed nation on Earth. It also has more Bikram yoga studios. You can list WalMart, Starbuck’s, fat people, fast food, politics, war, racism, problems unending, it will not change my mind. America is the most beautiful country on Earth to me. The people of the United States of America are the most beautiful people on Earth to me, even those who were born somewhere else. The government of the United States of America is the best government in the world to me.

The news media as a whole in America is agenda driven and assumes the ignorance of it’s audience. And then there’s Bill Moyer’s Journal. Corporations push fat laden calorie bombs on the sub-literate causing serious health problems for the young and old alike. And then there’s Whole Foods. The government spends billions each year on the “war” on drugs and on wars around the globe pushing an agenda I don’t believe in. And then there’s the fact that our country has done more to help eradicate world hunger than any other nation on Earth. For everything I can point to about my country, my government, my people, that I wish were different, there is something I am deeply proud of to off set it.

Going home for three weeks in July reminded me of all the things I love about America. It also reminded me that I am and will always be American, no matter where else I may live or travel. My deep cultural connection to the land and the people of my native country is simply in my blood. I have never been ashamed of being American and, perhaps because of that, I have never been treated by anyone as if being American were a negative thing. I’ve never encountered rudeness or disrespect with regard to my nativity. I have met many people who have expressed opinions to me about our country’s global politics but they have always done this in a friendly and conversational tone and I have enjoyed these conversations immensely.

I know that I will continue to meet people who don’t share my warm remembrances of home. I used to imagine I might become one of them once I had the experience of living overseas. I am glad to say that is not what has come to pass. Instead, I have been given the opportunity to know more about the world my country is part of, to grow my understanding of the planet and it’s people, and to hold tight to my homeland as the place that created, among other wonders, me.