Of America: I'm Sorry, Can We Be Friends?

The first time I ever went to the US was just over 2 years ago. I'm was nearing my mid-30s and had never crossed the border. I, like nearly 75% of Canadians live within 100miles/160kms of the United States and had traveled to Ireland, England, all over Canada (except Newfoundland and the far North) and South Korea but never hopped in the car and drove to friggin' Niagara and kept going. I had stared at the US from The Falls (finally seeing it from the other side earlier this year, we REALLY do have the better view) and wondered. I wondered what it would feel like to be within the confines of it's borders? Would I get swallowed up? Would I instantly forget what it's like to feel Canadian? Or would all the stereotypes play themselves out and I would be hyper-sensitive to my roots-British Canadian, a colonial child. I think I seriously was afraid. Alex and I had traded so many half-joking/half serious "what the fuck is wrong with America?" MSN txts that I thought FOR SURE I'm on a list. If you read some of my earlier posts in this blog you'll see I had a real typical spoiled Canadian hate on for the US, Bush or no Bush, I really did paint with a wide brush. Tomorrow is a truly meaningful day. Not just a hyped, cyber-marketed bullshit day, a truly splendid day to be living in the 21st century. We don't have flying cars, or teleportation, or replicators, we don't have world peace and universal translators (although I hear they're working on it) we have a broken economy and we have the legacy of ignoring our history to contend with, but hallelujah, a black man will be President tomorrow! I offer this post as my thanks and best wishes to this country I discovered a couple of years ago while driving Alex to Connecticut. We drove through the Berkshires and they were dream like on account of a frosting. We drove through Springfield and fell to a deep sleep in Hartford. I awoke in America and was scared. I was still Canadian, not in Guantanamo, and the first American I said hello to smiled and said "good morning, beautiful day isn't it", I said, "ya eh", he stopped smiled, he knew who where I was from. And I drove downtown Hartford and felt the enormity of a country that moved the world into the 20th century, that lived the promise of the Enlightenment and has never looked back.

Below are things we can be thankful for that our big brothers and sisters to the south have accomplished. The people, places things and events in history that to a new friend and admirer of The Union, will always inspire fear, love and awe. A place that a Frenchman, Tocqueville, even a hundred and eighty ears ago, knew was destined for greatness. He wrote, "The more closely one examines the country's social and political situation, how marvelous the harmony between fortune and human effort seems".



New York, New York.

The Empire State building, will out live us all, and our kids, and our kid's kids and so on, and on and on. It is the great pyramid of our epoch. Also, bless New York City for Levain cookies, Patsy's pizza, Gray's Papaya, Dallas BBQs, Buttercup cupcakes, the New York Public Library building, Central Park, Lincoln Center, Times Square/Broadway, Brooklyn, Fishs Eddy, the train (otherwise known as the best subway system in the world, not the cleanest but wow nothing like it.) The 1980s Islanders teams-Billy Smith, Mike Bossy, Al Arbour, Dennis Potvin, Trottier-come on! I could go on, and most importantly showing me how to love again. Thank New York State for Seneca Falls, the Erie Canal and William Seward ( Lincoln would have been lost without him)


Wisconsin Dells

I have not had the pleasure of finding myslef in what is known as The Water Park and Rollercoaster Capital of the world, but it is on my list before the Mayan Ruins and Rome. I have heard tales from breathless travellers that it is a wonder, with miles of go-kart tracks, endless mini-golf and water slides the size office towers-come on!!! Topped off with being in the cheese capital of North America, what more could you wan?!. If there is a Nirvana for the JD Smith species, for all who know him, this is it.

M&Ms

So anyone who knows me knows I have a special kinda drug problem. I'm a hard core user. Listen everyone's got there vices. I gave up smoking, I don't do drugs, I enjoy a beer and whiskey every once and a while, but don't dare give me a bag of fucking M&Ms. We were in Boston and I had a relapse late one night and haven't been the same since. Thank-you America for M&Ms. Those US troops in WWII needed a portable sugar rush that wouldn't melt and could tuck nicely into a helmet. Yay WAR!! We got the bomb and candy coated chocolate out of it. Only in America. Oh, and the fact that Dairy Queen puts them in Blizzards in the US is enough for me to apply for a Green Card.

America the Good

To say America's image abroad is in trouble, well everyone knows what everyone outside of America thinks about the America the Bad of the last decade. But you know what, I have often asked myself where the fuck would we be with out them? See what my friend Pat has said.

"1) Americans are proud. They do nothing small, everything with gusto, enthusiasm, and considerable optimism. 2) They modernized what we know of democracy, and painful as it is sometimes, it works. Churchill put it this way: “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” This, in a broad way, gave people the ability to disagree, argue, worship, defend themselves and speak their minds as never before in history. 3) Their involvement in WWII, via Lend Lease act, and their later active participation in that conflict changed how the world might have otherwise turned out. For better or worse, we're probably better off that they did. 4) Most global disasters feature a strong humanitarian response from US charities and civilians, as well as government support. When the 1989 San Fran earthquake hit - they were largely left to care for their own."

I would add that in international development the work of the World Bank, the IMF, UN agencies, Christian relief organizations, private foundations are lead by many Americans-The Gates Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Rockefellers, The Clinton Global initiative, have done more for human development in the last decade than any other country's work.

Buddy Holly

Rock n' roll for me has a white father. I'm sorry Chuck Berry, I'm going to hell rock Hell for saying this but I think history will continue shine its light brighter and brighter on the Lubbock Texas native. Elvis created the persona of the modern pop star, but he didn't truly translate rock n roll for America. Buddy Holly did. He took on the country music establishment and with his school boy looks hiding searing musical brilliance he made it safe for everyone north of the Mason/Dixon line to tap there toes at 120bpm, lose control, shout, lust, and take the plastic veneer off 1950s America.

Indigo Girls

There is a particular mix of musical history, a place and time and serendipity that created my favourite musicians. If I was at a world music conference and had to give just one group that defines modern American music I would give them a copy of Retrospective by the Indigo Girls. Amy Ray and Emily Sailers would define themselves in may ways. Musicians, artists, activists. I first heard them nearly 15 years ago. Airplane was the first song I heard and it still gives me goosebumps. I take some razzin' from the more ignorant music fan for my respect and love for this duo. But their blend of country, folk, rock, pop, literature, history and passion for the world around continues to inspire.

The Final Frontier

When I was a child I was obsessed with space. I went through the obligatory I want to be an astronaut phase. I was an Eighties child and the decade was bittersweet for the space program. The Challenger tragedy aside, amazing advances were made that took the dream of Kennedy to the next level, one of a more scientific and discovery phase as opposed to the race and conquest model that propelled us in the 60s/70s. For my friends on the left the space program is a poster child for the mis-allocation of public funds, minds and investment. However, we live not just on Earth but within a incredibly complicated almost ethereal existence bopping along at a thousands of miles a minute heading where? What we learn from these trips to the 'back forty' are nothing short of miraculous. Great science has so many by products of learning. If you look around your house, your office and especially your local hospital, much of the science and technology that exists came out of the 'need' to go to the moon.

The New Deal

Thank God that FDR was a traitor to his class. As much as Obama naturally should lean toward the spirit of the Lincoln administration and the the strings through time that attach the two men's destinies, the 12 years FDR guided the great ship America are loaded with How-To's and Playbooks for our time today. There has been a subtle education of the public form Team Obama so far on what will be a New Deal like administration program. What came out of the New Deal in the 1930s was not just an economic recovery that was finished unfortunately by a war, but a re-invigoration of American civil society, arts, culture, science and industry. The example of 1930s America I think is the most brilliant and true to its soul. As Clinton said this past year, America needs to be prepared to show the world the power of it's example, not make and example of it's power.

MLK

There is nothing I can say about this man that hasn't been said by better, much smarter people than I. Just watch the I have a dream speech and say thanks.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1732754907698549493