Don't tread on me...damnit.

One thing I've learned is that people (by people, I mean Italians that I've met here so far) actually believe that it was the American people that wanted to go war with Iraq. Bringing up the war in conversation has become commonplace to any American whether at home or abroad...but it's usually worse when you're abroad.

First, I had a rather uneducated guy my age ask me: Why do Americans always want to go to war? That one I had to laugh off. How can you argue with stupidity. I had to do my best to keep my cool instead of adding WD-40 to the fire he lit under my ass (which was also exactly what he wanted to do.) Another time, an older man decided to "school" me with a harangue on America's thorough hypocrisy, praising Germany's "true democracy" (which is funny in its own right, because Germany is actually a Republic) and then storming off, not offering a mature discussion or even asking me how I felt (except for asking me rhetorical, sardonic questions.) He also didn't shy away from blatantly blurting out that he really, really, really dislikes America and Americans. This all during our first meeting. Classy. Hey, I'll be the first one to criticize my own country but, first of all buddy, get some tact. It's obvious he's an angry political dilettante-- which is fine. But the problem is that he's taking it out on me since I'm the only American in his provincial grasp. Anyway, since he's a fellow colleague he's hard to avoid-- and harder to ignore because Italians in general (yes, I am stereotyping) will interrupt you no matter what you're doing...I was actually in the middle of an online placement exam when he decided to do so.

So if you were Italian and visited the US, and as soon as I met you I began telling you how incredibly greedy, racist and insular your people are, what would immediately you think of me?

I figured out that that's actually the trendy thing to do these days (dislike America/ns), and the dumber half of the sheep blame Americans and not the government for the war. But, even if solicited by a total ignoranus (someone who is stupid and an asshole), it still made me backtrack and ask myself whether I, as an American, in some way, however minute, responsible for the war in Iraq?

It's easy to be an outsider, stand by, watching America's decency and dignity fall to pieces in a matter of less than a decade. Does it occur to my colleague how Americans actually feel about it all? How our identity has been marred? How angry we are that we weren't able to stop this abomination before it happened, that we aren't able to bring our troops home, that our protests and demonstrations in the form of books, films, clothes, posters, sit-outs, stand-ins, and boycotts have done absolutely nothing? The title of an article in an Italian newspaper today was "The 80s generation erased by the war." I am part of the 80s generation and this is what I must tell my grandchildren-- that history repeats itself and that the entire spirit and soul of a generation was silenced in more ways than one. I know people who have gone to war and I know people who died there, too. Everyone does these days and that doesn't make it less digestible. It's still a huge lump in your throat that you can't swallow, knowing you have unwillingly taken part in something that you never wanted or wished for. I'm assuming that he doesn't know anyone that died in the war. I'm assuming he doesn't know anyone that went to the war in the first place.

I know that the war has and will be a passionate subject for many years to come. But if you can't have the decent sense to learn to listen to others, even just for a moment, to see what they have to say, to have an open dialogue, to share ideas, break barriers of prejudice and discrimination and other nonsensical beliefs, then you're just as bad as the administration that decided to go to war without listening to any proper rationale.