There is the prison problem (overincarceration); the racial, gender, and class gap of achievement/salary; the corporatization of main st. and triumph of lobbyism; our allergy to nationalization, or really, our ongoing genuflection to the sacred cows of a moral fight that we waged over 50 years ago against Communism.

AND refusal to face the reality of all these things, and our treasured notions of ourselves in the world.

America needs a reality check. Or mabye a priority check.

zoe – i’m not sure why america is so scared of socialism. i always think that people who have knee-jerk reactions against it have never spent any time in a socialist country, or spoken to anyone who has lived in one.

mr. michael and paul – i agree that the future holds promise, with younger generations not as hindered by the prejudices of their parents and grandparents. however, if our social policies continue in the vein set by puritans in the 17th century, this is a tendency that many generations have failed to shake off. sure, things will change eventually, but we will be remembered as the cranky old puritans who came around too late, and this is not what we want it to mean to be american, is it?

alan – you make a good point about the U.S. being a collection of states just as the EU is a collection of nations. and i was only comparing the ideologies on this one issue, just to clarify. not sure what your impression was after living in europe, but it seems to me that this state-by-state designation (“i’m a new yorker. he’s from texas. they’re californians.”) is only how we americans perceive ourselves from inside our borders. from outside we’re all americans and few foreigners take time to notice or differentiate the subtleties of the state laws and personalities. so though being a alabaman or a californian are to us as different as being polish and spanish, to most outsiders it is probably the same difference as they see in being galician or being catalan. that is, none. and though there are states in the U.S. that are liberal (like my own home state of MA), the trend in same sex marriage laws is pulling right, and thus our national charater with respect to this issue reflects that.

marta – you make an interesting point about america’s need to seem perfect to other people. on the one hand we are very “god bless america,” with a huge sense of entitlement and bravado about ourselves and our history. however, on another level our self-confidence must be a little shallow if we at the same time have to continually reafirm our moral superiority.

thank you all for your comments!

I have never understood how a political party, a religion, or whatever other established form of power can decide on anyone’s personal life, or even worse, on anyone’s happiness. Live and let live, I say. And if you can’t accept others’ happiness, well, perhaps you need to take a good look at what’s going on inside you to not be able to let go….

As for the California vote on Prop 8, there are plenty of theories out there as to why this might have happened. For whatever reason it might have happened, the good thing is that all signs point to it being reversed and people’s legal rights given back to them. Or at least I hope that is the case

Zoe