Uncomfortable or Uninformed?

La politique: politics
La guerre: war

As I have been in Europe for over 7 months, I have had a chance to interact with a lot of different people, from different nationalities, different races, different religions. One thing is almost always for sure is that because I am American, everyone wants to discuss the tough stuff. That is, the stuff that I normally avoid discussion about; politics, Bush, Obama, the war. Now, I can understand what America is an easy target. We are the richest, most powerful country (right now)…and this is not me bragging about my country, these are the facts. It is always easy to criticize the top. But dang, I really feel like when I get this criticism or “discussion” about what is going on in America, and especially with respect to the war, I am supposed to defend the country—its as many of the people (especially the French) are asking me to defend the government’s decisions. I’m just Michelle Majerle, 23 year old from Kansas; I am not the President, Congress, the 300 million-person population of America…

The French specifically love to discuss politics. It’s not a taboo subject, on the contrary, a subject you are likely to broach upon first meeting someone. For example, on my second day of work at my internship, I had to drive 2 hours to our factory with my boss, and in that conversation he asked me what I thought about Bush, Obama, the war, healthcare; what my family thought about all of the above, and if I thought America was protectionist. OK buddy, we just met. And then there is one of the other interns at work who enjoys pestering me everyday with questions like “Is Iraq going to be the 51st state?” Politics is just not personal information here, as in the U.S. I think in the U.S. we do not discuss these subjects so in depth for fear of offending people. Maybe we’re too sensitive? Perhaps it’s a good thing to be more open about it; all the questioning has made me realize just how little I know about U.S. politics and the war we find ourselves in. So is it that I feel uncomfortable discussing my person political views, or am I just plain uninformed?

As I start to think about it more, this whole fiasco with the building of a mosque in New York at Ground Zero comes to mind. Apparently everyone is getting all fired up about it, with such comments like, “We cannot let them win!” Who is them? Have I been gone so long that the “War on Terror” has now become the “War on Islam?” A mosque is like a church, a temple; a building where people go to pray. A mosque has nothing to do with “terrorists.” I may not know everything about the political environment, but I do know that these people are more uninformed than I am.