A park bench has the potential to offer a remarkable place for observation. Under human tissue, its steel and timber composition willingly cradle while listening to the world as it continues in its ever-persistent existence. As a park bench spectator, we can disassociate ourselves from the common man, and absorb the conversations of others.
Resting my fatigued suit of flesh atop a UB park bench out side of the Student Union, I mentally drifted farther away from Earth as I gazed into the sky. While basking in my evening bliss, a momentary lapse of peace and serenity had taken me, a feeling that can seem new from time to time.
The sound of nearby voices abruptly pulled back to the ground. While still relaxing on the park bench, I listened in. I heard two students discussing their plans after college, each one chiming in as they volleyed back and forth within the conversation.
At the close of their exchange, they spoke of graduation and how they would both seek jobs in their native countries. This was then followed up with a comment that still lingers in my head every time I pass the Student Union. The comment: "F**k this country, we'll get our education and get out."
As an American living in this cultural melting pot of a country, the aforementioned comment left me rather outraged.
I do realize that technically we are mostly all immigrants here in the United States and that the U.S. is the land of opportunity and personal advantage for all who are let through the gates.
This is the United States of America, a free country, a providing country, and a welcoming country. In no other country across the globe will a settler be able to enjoy such a cordial salutation. I sometimes wonder, as a proud U.S. citizen like all of us, where I could move to abroad that I can be given a complimentary education, monetary aid, and lodging to advance my life to net a profession that pays exceptionally well. I honestly cannot think of any place on this ball of mud that would be so accommodating to foreigners by making it so incredibly tangible.
"F**k this country, we'll get our education and get out." Everyone wants to come for the party, but why does no one want to help clean up? Get in, take what you can, and get out. "Ask not what you can do for your country - but ask what your country can do for you." Wait, maybe U.S. president John F. Kennedy had said it the other way around, I'm not quite sure anymore. The U.S. has become the land of opportunity that everyone hates, even its own citizens, and it's no secret. This is what saddens me.
I'm enraged to observe that our western way of life has become such a staple for all to use as a guide for their own, yet at the same time despise. Senseless to me it seems, as I fail to understand.
This nation is hated by many for multiple reasons. But, because this country was founded by a colonist revolution that had the ultimate desire to be free, a freedom that most other countries cannot compare to still and likely never will. Is sheer jealousy a legitimate reason? This nation's freedom is what gives people the ability to openly make such a comment as stated earlier without being arrested, deported, or even executed. Further in to the past, this country once had more freedom and pride long ago, a freedom that would not be tampered with by any.
When American colonists threw the sacks of tea over the sides of ships in December 1773, which was a demonstration of a fearless quest for ultimate freedom. No one would tax their tea, not even their mother country. Now, U.S. citizens are taxed to death every time we turn around. There is no escaping the government taxing every hard earned dollar, a sheer loss of freedom.
U.S. citizens must unite and become a whole as they were long ago. There is no tangible reason for inner national unrest. If you live here, love it or at the very least respect it. If not, leave it.
Despite the hatred from an amalgam of nations across the globe, and the hatred by this nation's own citizens, the United States of America is still truly a giving country. It is a land of opportunity, for all to prospect, unarguably. Despite the actions of the United States government, it is the people of this country that deserve respect, and with respect, they will return that admiration.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
