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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 572752" data-attributes="member: 5100">I think the willingness to travel to other countries is wholly separate from one's love of country.You won't find anyone who loves America more than I do.  Still, given the means and time, I'd frequently visit other countries.  My wife and I have a general tour of Germany planned for some point.  I'd also love to see England and Scotland.  I've got a friend from India who worked in the US for several years and I should go see him and his country.  Japan is also high on the list of vacation stops, or at least "I'd like to go there sometime."As someone else said, though, we're a bit bigger and we've got these oceans beside us.  I know Californians who think nothing of going to Baja for a weekend and Washingtonians who feel likewise about Vancover.  It's all about convenience and proximity.As far as my view on my home, politics is rather taboo on these boards.  I'll state my position as gently as I can.  If anyone, moderator or no, thinks I've crossed a line, drop me a note and I'll delete from here down.IMHO (what else), America is deferent from pretty much every other nation in the world.  Most lands seem to be a collection of people that needed organization, so something showed up that was appropriate.  America was settled by people from all over the place with similar beliefs and was founded based on ideology.That ideology is one of self determination (aka rugged individualism).  That's what pretty much all of our core development is based upon.  It's the refuge of people who just want to be left alone, so to speak.  If you think people only get ahead by luck or by unethical means, you really ought to find somewhere else to live.  If you think we need to police what people say, then you don't belong here.America is a place where people who disagree on everything else can at least agree that we all have the right to voice any opinion we want and believe whatever we want.  No matter what those beliefs might be, we'll band together against anyone who might want to take away the freedom to speak them.Has the reality always met the ideal?  Not hardly.  We're all human, even Americans. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Almost every group in existance has been persecuted.  Books have been burned.  We do try, though.  We may waver, but the principles are still there.As cthuluftaghn said, though, I'm saddenned.  America has begun to restrict the right of self-determination.  Some aren't allowed to succeed and others aren't allowed to fail (from failure comes the knowledge to succeed).  Some views are being deemed grounds for more punishment in cimes.We're putting entirely too much stock in the policies and designs of other nations.  Nations that were founded to shepard and babysit the peasantry and have it so ingrained that even in democracy, the individual doesn't seem so important (at least to an outsider).</blockquote>

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