Essay: Just a (not so) brief reminder...

.. of who 'we' are. Meaning the US as a society.

I'm a sucker for a good blog sidebar title and while surfing articles on the failure of the SpaceX launch I sidetracked (good term for it, too) onto some old stuff from several years ago which addressed a notion from a Guardian writer that the US should 'consult' Europe more and quit being a 'go-it-alone cowboy'. The premise being that the US is actually an 'offspring' of Europe.

Ummm.. that might be the case if our forebears had mostly immigrated to bring the fruits of European culture into the US and extend England France and Germany's sphere of influence to the Western Hemisphere... bu tthey did not.

The US was mostly created as a haven FROM Europe. ALL the initial colonies were basically set up by people or groups to either get away from something.. or from nothing. Even Georgia was, in a way.. essentially a penal colony, many were 'voluntarily' exiled here in lieu of spending many years behind bars in England.
S great Essay on this by DenBeste

Read it all.. you probably heard most of it one time or another in school, but we sometimes forget what it meant.

I dont know how many of us here today would have the guts to do what our ancestors did 100, 200 or 300 years ago... I might not have. And, in a way.. that is my point.

Those who DIDNT leave felt their situation was 'good enough', those that came here risked everything, including their very lives, because their status quo WASNT good enough.
In other words, the Jimmy Carters stayed in Europe, the Ronald Reagans came here to escape 'good enough'.

So the next time the Guardian feels the need to tell us what our President should say in a State of Union address... or tell my fellow voters in my county who they should vote for for President, I'm going to remember that essay... and serve it as humble pie.