J'AIR AH ME SEGG-LEMB

Sometimes I wonder if I’m actually American.  Not in a birther kind of way, but more in the sense that I don’t understand many of the prevailing attitudes shared by my fellow countrymen.  Case in point is this weeks big event, the Bin Laden killing, and the subsequent outpouring of sadistic joy which followed.

Without getting all Alex Jones/black helicopters/New World Order on the circumstances surrounding his death, yea, Bin Laden was a total asshole, and he deserved to die for his part in one of history’s more surprising and terrifying attacks.  Simple as that.  But guess what?  He was still a human being, and I think we can all agree that because of that, he should be afforded the same rights in death as in life.  Regardless of who he was.

Unfortunately, Americans (among others) don’t seem capable of separating the actuality of existence from the perverse nationalistic sentiment that pulses through them. The idea of a good ole “lynching” so to speak, is a deep-seeded nugget of hate that still exists in the minds of many people here.  That’s why I wasn’t surprised when crowds of ideologues marched up and down Pennsylvania Avenue the other night, blindly waving miniature American flags around and riling each other up with pro-imperialist banter.

Haven’t we learned anything since 9/11, the supposed “moment of change” for this country?  Right after the attacks, I remember seeing multiple news outlets covering rallies in Palestine, wherein impoverished Arabs jumped and cheered in glee upon hearing the news. Of course, those tapes were later proven to be fakes meant only as appetizers for the war-gluttons here, but our reaction to them is what’s interesting.  We watched as they cheered and we said “animals.”  It was a sick display of hate and an even cruder form of humanity for anyone to smile and laugh at the plight of others.  We recognized that.  And yet, we can’t seem to help ourselves now.

America has a perception problem.  Not just from other countries, who view us as ignorant, hypocritical imperialists hell-bent on overeating and colonization, but from within ourselves.  We seem to think that because we have baseball stadiums and Hollywood and breast implants that somehow the rules don’t apply to us.  We think, not only are we above everyone else, we’re not even on the same plane of reality.  This deliberately insular attitude keeps expanding, and I’m not sure why.

I could go on and on and bring up Limbaugh and Palin and all the other schmucks who perpetuate this state of mind, but I think the basic idea is pretty clear: we have so much that is good and strong and right in this country, and yet we’re consistently brought down by this sort of nonsense. Rather than make eighteen facebook posts saying “I’m glad he’s dead!” or run around screaming anti-Islam profanities outside the White House, why don’t we take a long look at ourselves and see where we’ve come since this whole mess started?  I thought we’d moved on, but I guess not.  It’s time to wake the fuck up.