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greg dahlen

Alumnus, academy of achievement

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For those of you who live in other countries, how do you feel toward the United States?

Since I don't travel much from my home near Los Angeles, I often wonder how others feel toward America and Americans.

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  • Greg McEachern

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    Jan 28 2013: Lately I think of America as an experiment in progress. It's interesting Greg that you are reaching out and asking for a perspective from outside your country because I think our own view can be biased and another vantage point might be enlightening. Or not.
    I remember first real human contact with americans was a draught dodger that became friends with my older brother. Later I played music with a young man avoiding the draught and he broke down crying because of the shame he felt about his decision to leave the US. They were both good people. I think of Paul Simon's song 'American Tune', patriotic like an anthem. That's America; big on anthems and flags, so sure that their experiment is working. It's like God said "Let's do an experiment where everything is based on freedom and we'll make it mandatory that everyone must have a gun and we'll write that into their constitution". Paul Simon says "I can't help but wonder, what's gone wrong". I lived in Texas for a year and had some good friends there. But I remember a time when I was threatened by a man with a gun as he revealed that he thought I was a yankee. If I had known my own Canadian history I could have enlightened him to the fact that the yankee Americans said "You're either with us or agin us" to fight the south(George Bush said the same thing later). Instead we aligned with new Canadian provinces to form a larger Canada and a larger threat to the yankees. Hence we were actually helping the south. But I love the south, and Paul Simon and the american culture is part of my life. I met a war vet in a bar in Grants N.M. He had one plastic arm and we discussed the war; whether it was right or wrong and I left him telling him that I respected him and his sacrifice. So many wars are creating so many victims inside and outside america. When an army wins a war they want to fight another and when an army loses a war they want to fight again. Fewer victims-more forgiveness.

    • greg dahlen 30+

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      Feb 9 2013: Greg, is America more of an experiment in progress than other countries, or is every country an experiment in progress? Why would America be more so?

      • Greg McEachern

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        Feb 9 2013: When we live in a democracy we want to believe that it is the right way to live. All countries are experiments in progress I believe. We have seen many versions of civilizations through history. In my opinion to worship a gun and make it part of your religion has taken America down a path of ignorance and it's leading it to a demise. I have watched people state that they are correct because of the fact they have a gun. The theory is; it's in the constitution so it must be right. I think America's military exploits are a manifestation of it's 2nd amendment. It's like when Jesus said, "You're either with me or agin me".

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