USA, US, us, us, us, us, us

i met with my colombian professor again last week and talked about how everyone there is brought up to want to be shipped away. every time i have these meetings and ask my probably offensive questions, i always leave, still unsettled because i just want to ask, "So what the hell IS the government doing there?" i walk away shaking my head at all the things i still take for granted here. noted before, many times, but how can people emigrate here and look at us and not want to shake us, slap us across the face? i walk away loving the united states, appreciating, at least, that a few old men had the right idea at some point in our history. i'm not naive, i know how this country works, how it fucks people over and acts like a cement in the rest of the world's decisions. the CIA world factbook blatantly states that "The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world." go read some of the descriptions for the other countries, and then go back to that. the culture of entitlement and ignorance.

i wonder if i have an understanding of his place here based on my experiences of coming from west virginia. i think it takes an outsider to feel passionate about changing a place, and i certainly never want to go back there again. it's as if just being from there injects a strain of hopelessness in your blood. but to feel that way about a whole country? it should be noted that he's never downright told me any of his feelings about going back. i've never asked, maybe he doesn't feel that way at all.