Re: Article: "EXCLUSIVE: Help Wanted -- 'Arrogant Americans' NeedNotApply" AND THIS IS FOR A TECHWRITER

[Evelyn Lee Barney <evbarney -at- comcast -dot- net>]

I missed the original article - but I have to say I'm a bit fed up with 
the "Ugly American" stuff.

Yes - I'm well aware of where it came form.

Yes - I understand there were and are reasons for it.

HOWEVER - What about visitors to this country?  Commentators on this 
country? Many are great - too many are the definition of arrogant.  
(Just my personal experience) I'm not talking politics here - I'm 
talking aobut personal interactions.  To listen to some people (from 
most any part of the world - for some reasons China seems to be an 
exception) Americans are ignorant, uneducated, have no class, no taste, 
are crass, and oh - whatever it is we don't do it quite right.  The 
people I am thinking of seem to think it is there right to chide, 
deride, dismiss and make fun of anyone and everything American on our 
own soil.  And, if we don't lap it up like a whipped dog  then we have 
only proven their point.

I have traveled outside this country.  I helped secure a summer job for 
my son in Asia while he was in high school as part of his education. I 
am not, by any streatch of the imagination a "rah rah love it or leave 
it - MY AMERICA" type. I'm not a fan of Glenn Beck.  If I had to pidgin 
hole myself I'd be most apt to say "middle aged hippie."  I still find 
these guests aggravating almost beyond words.  One good friend (a 
Welshman who now lives and works in London) seems to believe that any 
argument can be summed up with the phrase "Oh, you YANKS!"  - I usually 
brush it off with with the thought "That's just Nick" but - 
unfortunately - it isn't.  While in a wide political and economic sense 
- the US may still have much to answer for.  As individuals - we don't 
deserve this crap.  Yet many of us continue to behave as if we do.

Siiiiiigh,

Ev

On 2/18/2010 11:23 AM, Leonard C. Porrello wrote:
> I've had a much different experience. Living as a grad student in Belgium and a technical writer in Austria, as well as during literally dozens of months of travel in Italy, England, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, and France, I don't recall encountering any "ugly Americans" (obesity and ill-fitting, ugly clothing notwithstanding). The only place I have seen them is in American airports--and to this group I feel indebted. Last time I went to Rome, my flight was cancelled, and I was several places back in the line for the attendant who was rebooking passengers. If it weren't for the several angry and abusive customers in front of me, who ended up having to delay their departure to the next day, my kind attitude toward the attendant would have gone unnoticed, and I wouldn't have gotten a flight that same day.
>
>    

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