Hal Hagan
Hal Hagan
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

America is unique in many ways, and the same as every other country in many ways. The difference lies in its people, and despite the “Melting Pot” idea where all become Americans, while most are wonderful people individually, I fear the melting pot doesn’t work as well as hoped (even among Americans whose families trace their roots back many, many generations. With racial divides, religious divides, us vs them, state vs state, neighbourhood vs neighbourhood, marginalization of “the others”, neo-nazism vs anti-fascists, your remembered America is currently in some serious turmoil, and is starting to look very much like what their current President likes best — chaos, where everyone is rocked back on their heels trying to stay upright.

But, Americans (at least all the many I have met) ARE upright; Generally kindness, dignity and competence are the attributes I like to think epitomize the average American, and once the next President takes the reins, we’ll see those wonderful attributes come back to the forefront and the level of nonsense will settle down.

For the moment, your father was prescient in recommending you never return, as if you were living in today’s USA, you’d likely be exhausted from trying to navigate the daily onslaught of “just plain stupid” that seems to be littering print and other media. Not that they’re suddenly bad at what they do, it’s what they have to write about that’s so dumb.

Your life in Spain sounds idyllic in some ways, yet you’re living in a very old (and therefore very conservative and closed) environment, where what has been is “good enough” forever — anathema to someone who has grown up in an America where anything is possible and everything is open to be improved.

May the America of your rosy memories return (the ORIGINAL “great America”, not the trumped-up dream based on intolerance and chaos.

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    Hal Hagan

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    Hal Hagan