Shoes and America

These are the new shoes I purchased at Burlington Coat Factory yesterday, for a mere $12.98. Except imagine them in a dark cream or perhaps a light tan. I've worn them to work today to try and break them in before the wedding on Saturday. They will be accompanying me and my MoMo FaLana dress. And perhaps a purse. No man.

This time last year, I was in Italy for the first time. I remember going to Europe pretty well convinced that I was going to tell everyone I was a Canadian. There were plenty of opportunities for political discussion. In Budapest, my Dad and I spent most of our time with college professors- from Hungary and the States- and there was a lot of discussion about the upcoming elections. The war in Iraq was a huge topic. Our first night in Italy, some Italian men at what was to become our favorite Trattoria sent our table some grappa and engaged us in a haltingly translated political discussion. I proudly informed them I was voting for Kerry. They told me they would vote for Bush, because he was better looking.

At least, that's what I think they said. There was a lot of grappa. And some pretty poor translating by our waiter.

Anyway, the point I was moving towards was today I don't think I would ever consider saying I was Canadian. At least not in the relative safety of Europe. As a country, America has botched a lot of things up. We botched up Iraq and we sure as hell have botched up response to Hurricane Katrina. A lot of people hate us, and we hate a lot of people.

But I still have faith in us, as a country. I'm saying this right now, knowing full well that I will rant against the 'moral majority' and the mixture of religion and government we seem to be promoting. I say it knowing that there are decisions the government could make it the near future that would encourage me to move abroad for a few years.

I still believe in America. And, as dopey as it might sound, I love this country. We aren't our president and we aren't our government and we aren't our groups of extremists. We have the potential to learn from our mistakes. We have the freedom to argue about them, too. And though we very often aren't going about it the right way, many of us are trying to make our country and our world better.

I'm not being entirely coherent. And it's certain I'm being naive. But all I'm saying is, I'm not Canadian. I'm American.