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President Bush delivers news of the "surge" in a Presidential address to the Nation.........more American troops are going to Iraq.
Below is a letter I wrote to a European friend of mine I am specifically answering questions and statements about living in the US now that in his view "freedom is ending in America".
Hey Karl
New york is...... at least for my money..... the least racist place in the world and the least judgmental........ and the most diverse....... even after the twin Towers fell..... nobody attacked New York's Mosques...... I lived in an Arab neighborhood on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn at the time, some of my neighbors having known persecution elsewhere were initially afraid that anger and violence would come their way in retaliation for 9-11, but it did not...... Americans can be any color or creed........ if they are able to embrace some ideology........ and that true diversity and tolerance.......... then they are Americans........ a man born in Japan can become an American...... and be accepted as an American...... in a way he could never be accepted as British in Britain or German in Germany.
The funny thing about some of your remarks on Guantanamo and US foreign policy is they are so familiar to me....... I shared a lot of them myself in the past ....... and most of my best friends still hold them now ...... im sorry not to share them really it would be easier for me ...... but i have to say in some regards my experience leads me to slightly step away from more idealist positions....... a radical idealist assumes that all people want peace and decency for all...... and the US is in the way....... sadly some people want death and jihad ...... and they are not necessarily choosing it out of poverty and lack of knowledge...... some are choosing it from a hatred and a rejection of liberal democracy and freedoms .....freedoms you assume everyone would want ..... these people exist in pretty large numbers...... and are a threat to all liberal democracy and freedom....... be it in Germany, Holland and the UK or Spain.....and of course in the US..... again sadly..... elections in Palestine give you Hammas..... haters of freedom for women and non believers....... not a party that wants peace with Israel and accommodation with liberal freedoms in the rest of the world.
I really hate religious totalitarianism...... I fear Islam-o-fascism ..... but I do not care particularly for President Bush's style of religiousness either.......
Weirdly the US has virtually no CC-TV cameras...... the UK has 20% of all the CC-TV cameras in the world...... Americans reject them as an infringement of liberty. People in Britain think they protect them from street crime and like them. These are cultural differences not really an accurate measure of freedom.
I hate all the money in US politics...... it seems to make it corrupt..... even the Sheriff of Police has to raise money and get elected..... it seems corrupt...... but people here think its incredible that a British Chief constable of Police is not elected and therefore accountable to no one...... does not have to win the support of the people......... to earn his position of power over them ...... again there is something in that........ but I like you come from a different tradition.
If you listen to C-span radio here you hear constantly the Senate committees questioning Spy bosses/ CIA bosses / Army commanders....... The president plans to send National Guard men to the Mexican border ..... before they go their commanders are at the capital building and are answering questions about their deployment to Law makers in the house of Representatives....... you don't get this in Europe...... in many ways this system is shockingly open for someone who always lived in the UK before.....
Anyway...... in many ways there is a lot less nanny state...... ordinary folks can have weapons......... er....... which is madness..... of course..... but it is a kind of freedom ......
My view is there is weirdly more freedom here...... special protection under law for journalists...... more supervision of government by other elected bodies etc.......
Guantanamo is a complete aberration...... er........well thats not true........ but the CIA activities abroad........ do not characterize what its like to live here..... the CIA and its activities to 'protect' America do not characterize America...... accept to people watching the TV about America and living elsewhere....... all the spying or black sites...... rendition or secret flights....... make no impact at all on the life of the 300 million average Americans..... they are happily living in the leading free country in the world.
The Mexican border always has been...... still is...... mostly pretty well wide open......... millions of people have crossed into the US across it...... the draw of freedom and hopefully wealth...... brings hundreds of thousands of hopefuls each year....... so many people have crossed and are here without papers etc........ it is changing the face of America ........ Spanish is many peoples only language now......... all telephone banking etc gives you the option of Spanish speaking....
I saw the Berlin Wall fall.......i was there...... it was built by the purveyors of 'lack of freedom' to keep their people imprisoned inside .........America stood firm with the people not contained by the wall......... they were the ultimate guarantors of freedom for the people who lived next to it........ but were not contained by it....... but would have been......... without America's commitment....
The USA stood then........ and stands now............ as the shining example to the world of what freedom looks like....... in great ways and awful ways....... and has been since the second world war the guarantor of human rights throughout the world. Er.......... That does not mean everything they do is right......the Iraq war has been a disaster.....Guantanamo is embarrassing ......the changes at the Mexican border do not suit it.....(but lets remember that border is about stopping people flooding in........ to participate in the riches of America...... very different.... the opposite in fact .... from stopping people from trying to escape out of....... the prison........ like East Germany.)
Of course Its perfectly valid to raise any objection to Guantanamo or the Iraq war...... or even the border....... but these are unpopular policies of the US President....... leader of currently the worlds most successful democracy..... not indicators that its over for freedom in America ........ hey..... mate ........ you don't need to believe everything you see on TV your feeling about America when you visit....er..... that is America-!!
Thanks for your thought provoking email nice one bro-!!
Cheers Mate
Jez XXXX
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.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....