Monday, June 06, 2005

America or something like that

There is a recent surge of articles on how america has changed since 911, steps bush administration has taken since then and the direction it is headed towards. Hard to imagine what dems would have done if they had been in power. So anyways not sure if its me or others feel the same way too but american govt is definitely into more petty politics and hypocratism than before. To give examples take congressmen getting involved in right to die case, politicians using religious congregration to justify appointment of judges to name a few. I recently read a report on US ranking of freedom and profiling of people in other countries and it seemed so ironic when sole basis of diverting flights here is based on name match, color of skin and religion. Thomas Friedman whom i consider as gold standard in columns recently wrote an article on this titled 'American DNA' where he discusses how america is becoming unwelcoming to people from outside with all the security and negative feeling and hence the basic fabric or american DNA is changing. When I think about this I remember one song from the great band 'The Doors'. Lyrics is something like this

People are strange when you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly when you’re alone
Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven when you’re down
When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange

I still say America is the greatest country in this current world and its still gold
standard for freedom but I think its 14karat now and not 24karat. Most of the americans don't even know what 24karat gold is anyways. The govt is trying too much for too little. I don't know what would be a perfect solution but all i know is I would love to see America and not something like that.