In the light of the comments made on my last post, I decided that today I would celebrate Old Glory and my love of America with this monster montage of pictures I have taken of the American flag.
In my last post some people suggested that I perhaps to don’t like America, that I’m “anti-America.’ In reality nothing could be further from the truth – and I am serious. I genuinely LOVE America!
America saved my life back when I lived out there for a short while in 1992. It gave me a chance to start a-fresh, to get some perspective on things and to broaden my horizons in a way that only living in a foreign land can do.
Since that time I have travelled to America regularly, spending weeks on end there every year. Kicking back relaxing, meeting new people, having new experiences and most importantly for America… spending my money!
One should not confuse my dislike of Americas current political situation as a dislike of the country itself. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I’m an Englishman that it would seem many of my humorous quips at America are lost on Americans and seen instead as ‘America bashing’ rather than harmless banter that it is.
America is so much a part of who I am a friend once commented that if you were to cut me I would bleed stars and stripes! My love of the country, and my exceptionally close relationship to it, saw me play the role of ‘surrogate’ American to many people in the aftermath of 9/11. As you can imagine, such was the international shock and following sympathy for America, that many people wanted to reach out to Americans and offer their sympathies. For those who didn’t actually know an American I became the next best option, despite the fact that at the time I knew no-one effected by those events.
Briton is not a ‘flag flying’ kind of country, but I hung a huge American flag on my house and placed an American flag sticker on the rear window of my car. Many of the papers here printed pull page American flags for people to place in their windows or wherever, providing them with a way of showing their support and sympathy to a nation so terribly wounded.
Shortly after 9/11 I travelled to New York City to re-acquaint myself with the skyline and to pay my respects. I can’t explain to you why I needed to do that, but I just did. As a young man in love with the buildings of the world that touched the sky, standing atop of those iconic twin towers in Manhattan became a life goal for me. I dreamed of one day standing there looking down at the world, 110 stories below me. Seven years after first stepping foot on American soil I finally achieved that ambition as I walked out onto the roof of the North Tower.
I have travelled from coast to coast across America by road, woven a vast web of vapor-trails spanning thousands of miles in American skies, and walked among the skyscrapers that so inspiringly reach for the stars in search of the American dream. If home is where the heart is, then anytime I am in America, I am home.
I have met a great deal of wonderful and interesting people in the United States, and along the way I have made some friendships that I feel sure will last for many years to come. So excuse me for not loving your President or the way your leaders act upon the international stage, but know that for the little it’s worth America has a true friend in me.
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Sites by me looking at America
Point and Click America
American Reality Radio (series 1)
American Reality Radio (series 2)
[Video] Moments
[Video] An American Christmas
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 9:08 am
“If home is where the heart is, then anytime I am in America, I am home.”
I feel so touched by that quote. I am not an American, and I do not agree with Bush’s way of running the country, but I love everything that America is and what it signifies. Growing up in a third world country, I knew the meaning of the american dream since I was old enough to read, and finally now it’s at my grasp :-) America is home.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 1:42 pm
Now that’s a nice post! :)
It’s just how you say things, maybe I just don’t catch your humor? Like with the candy bar post. You could’ve just said “We’ve got these great candy bars here” and then talked about them. What’s in that candy bar anyways? I don’t take offense to the “It’s not for girls”, that’s just teasing.
Personally, I think Godiva (which is the best, and we do have it here) is ONLY for girls! ;) As for candy bars I think one of the best American candy bars is a Symphony bar. It’s chocolate with toffee chips and almonds in it.
I’m sure there are quite a few things we have here that you don’t have there and vice versa.
So thanks for all of the flags, you didn’t have to take your cute face down and if I had Premium Xanga or even knew how to post pictures I would be more than happy to post a British flag. I actually think they are kind of cool.
As for the politics, no debating, but hopefully in the future you will come to see that my country, and yours, made wise decisions.
Here’s to a world free of brutality!
Have a good night Simon. It is night time there right? I think it is.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 9:56 am
You’re more patriotic than I am!
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 11:14 am
Your banner offends me! Your desecrating my flag with your Xanga handle.. Who do you think you are, the King of America?
Just testing out my American oversensitivity :-)
Your comments are appreciated. In response, I will say that I have always loved the subtle english comedy of the TV show ‘Chef’ :-)
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 12:05 pm
I’m sure that you have seen more of America than most natural born Americans.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 12:06 pm
“America saved my life back when I lived out there for a short while in 1992. It gave me a chance to start a-fresh, to get some perspective on things and to broaden my horizons in a way that only living in a foreign land can do.” i feel the exact same way about england!! rock on with your patriotism simon! you’re great! i would proudly fly the union jack and england flag any day!
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 2:02 pm
i think any time you bash america (and when i say, you, i am talking about you in particular), you’re just picking on a little brother. i always forget that about england. they probably see america as their little kid or something cute like that. hehe.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 1, 2005 at 7:05 pm
I never took anything you said to be anti-American. As you could ascertain from my comments on your previous post, I don’t necessarily agree with all our actions in the world theater. I’ve heard the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly. I admire your emotional candor and appreciate the beautiful display of our American flag on your post. I love this land. It is refreshing to hear that others feel the same in a time when all that is publicized is the bashing. Have a great day!
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 5:56 am
What I think doesn’t come across here is that despite me saying that I am not a political person, I do feel passionately about things. I suppose nobody has seen me ‘Britain Bash’ here either, but believe me I get equally fired up about political things here too. Start me talking about the environment and see how passionate I get on that one! I don’t see America as a ‘little brother’ though. I doubt many Brits do. Sadly I think if you ask most people to sum the United States up in a human way like that I think the majority might say something like ‘school yard bully.’ But that is just the political stuff, and sadly it’s the way things look from the outside looking in, which believe me, makes me sad too.
A lot of the ‘bashing’ I do is more observational stuff. It’s not ‘bashing’ at all really. The UK has problems too, but to follow Marzish’s analogy I would say that I pick up on the things that sadden me about Americas behaviour sometimes BECAUSE I love it so much and I know it better than that. I guess I get annoyed and disappointed because I want the world to see America for its good qualities rather than the stuff that America puts out there for everyone to look at. It must be like a teachers relationship with the naughty school kid whom it know has got far more to offer than just the misbehaving. Do you understand what I mean?
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 6:04 am
On a lighter note, can anyone out there hazard a guess as to where some of those pictures were taken? There are a couple of very obvious locations, but the pictures come from locations far and wide across the States so lets see how many of you can be geographically impressive :-)
I also want to say that aastar71’s comment about the two flags did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by me. She said “I would proudly fly the union jack and England flag any day!”
Often people think the Union flag is the English flag. Ask them to draw you an England flag and that’s the one they draw. So the it’s nice to hear an American refer to the English flag as well as the Union flag or ‘Union Jack’ as it is often called. (Personally I like the Welsh flag WAY better than the boring old England one, but that’s a different matter :-) )
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 7:45 am
I think the only flag location I can figure out, and I’m guessing, is a New York City Firestation.
I think alot of the bad rap that America gets is by the media. For example, the article that stated that the Iraqis were forced to vote or lose their “food rations”. That was just totally ridiculous. Out of everything going on in Iraq you usually just hear of the bad. You don’t hear of all of the schools opening or the hospitals, how the kids are getting immunized, etc, etc. America does an awful lot of good all around the world.
When the Tsunami hit, there was a pledge of millions of aid before the situation was even accessed. America was bashed. I believe the aid is now in the billions, but they don’t talk about that on the news.
I just get tired of hearing how “bad” America or our government is. I happen to think we have a great country and a great government. Sure, we make mistakes, our government makes mistakes, but we are hardly a bully on the playground picking on innocent little kids.
You know, it’s nice seeing the pictures of Iraqis holding up signs saying “We love America”, “Thank You President Bush”, etc, etc. Why do I have to go looking for this? Why isn’t this on the news? Why are there men being flown here for prostetic hands after Saddam’s gang cut theirs off and I don’t see this on the news? What other countries doing to help out in this area? Are other countries flying Iraqis in for surgery out of the goodness of their hearts? I don’t see it. Maybe I need to go looking for this too. These guys with missing hands did not lose them by us. I LOVE the fact that we are helping them out. I HATE the fact that I have to go looking for stories like this. If I have to look for the stories, who in other countries are going to see them when all they hear is America is bad? Are they going to go looking for these stories? I doubt it. It seems others are content to listen to the horror stories that the media spews.
I was going to post the link to the story about prostetic hands fitted for Iraqi men, it’s a documentary, but I can’t even find it on the internet.
Do you understand where my frustration comes in?
I’m sorry if I offended you with the bashing comment, but hopefully now you can see why I got defensive.
Thanks again for the flags. I have to admit I don’t know the difference between a Union Jack, a Welsh or the English flag. At this point I would have to assume I was talking about the English flag, but, I will now go look up the difference.
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 9:12 am
Do you agree with me that Marzish looks a bit Welsh too :-)
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 8:46 am
thanks for the shout out simon! i too enjoy the welsh flag and i know a few welshmen who would have to agree!!
Wrote the following comment on Mar 2, 2005 at 10:43 am
lol!! yes, i would have to agree with you on that one also!
Wrote the following comment on Mar 11, 2005 at 6:25 pm
Well For those who are a little confused about the difference between and England glag, a Welsh flag, and a British flag, see my post ‘Flying the flag.’
As an interesting aside, I thought a few of you might be interested that due to this post I got two seperate emails that could be described as ‘hate mail.’ Both were from the UK and both were spewing venom over my lack of patriotism to the UK! Ah well.