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Oh, the burdens of cruising the French Riviera while feeling ashamed of your country!
Pam Meister, Pajamas MediaWill Smith is the latest overpaid navel-gazer to join the Embarrassed to Be a Rich American Celebrity Tour. On a recent Today Show appearance to hawk his upcoming movie Hancock which, if this report is correct, is likely to be a box office disaster Smith had this to say about his recent travels abroad: You know I just, I just came back from Moscow, Berlin, London, and Paris and its the first, Ive been there quite a few times in the past five to 10 years. And it just hasnt been a good thing to be American. And this is the first time, since Barack has gotten the nomination, that it, it was a good thing. Yup. That dastardly George W. Bush has made life incredibly difficult for the jet set. Imagine having to hide your face in shame every time you travel to Europe just because holier-than-thou Europeans think that since they dont like your president, you shouldnt either. It must really put a cramp in your ability to enjoy luxuries like private jet travel, expensive hotels, and fine wines. Oh, the horror. . . . When I hear that Smith, who has climbed the ladder of incredible success over the past ten or fifteen years, says its not a good thing to be American just because the current president is unpopular, I get really steamed. How have Bushs decisions while in the White House affected Smiths ability to work and live the life that most of us can only dream of? If Smith and his cronies are embarrassed when they see the snooty folks at the Cannes Film Festival and other such gatherings, I have this to say: hard cheese. My husband wonders why I bother to get all worked up over incidents like this. And every time I do, I swear it will be the last time I waste my breath. But then I hear things like Smiths comment and I get all hot under the collar again. Why? Because it really galls me that American celebrities, our unofficial ambassadors, feel like they have to go around denouncing the country that gave them the opportunities for the exceedingly good careers and lives they enjoy. Despite the fact that I believe history will be much kinder to George W. Bush than his contemporaries are, you dont have to agree with Bushs policies or even like the man to be proud to be an American. Despite any missteps throughout our history, we are responsible for much good in the world, and more people are clamoring to get in than to get out. That says more about how horrible America is than anything the chattering classes in Europe can come up with any day of the week. So I say this to Will: you think it hasnt been good to be an American for the last few years? Try being a citizen of Zimbabwe, where people are starving to death due to the ham-fisted management of a brutal dictator and being killed if they dare oppose his policies. I hear North Korea is nice; they have a great new diet over there: eating grass. Or how about living in Cuba, which has been frozen in time for nearly fifty years and where political opponents of the president are tossed into prison for speaking up? And perhaps on a lesser scale but still alarming, how about being a citizen of the UK, where the impossibility of finding a dentist on the national health plan has led to some people, out of desperation, pulling out their own teeth, and where the government wants to inspect what parents pack in their childrens school lunch boxes and if it doesnt meet government standards, it might be confiscated and stern warnings sent home to Mum and Dad. It shouldnt take the installation of a new president which happens every four and sometimes eight years, like clockwork to restore your pride in being an American. And if its really that bad, one of the other great things about this country is that if you want to leave, no ones stopping you. Posted by: Mike 2008-07-02 |
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