"So buying a 'Japanese' automobile is Unamerican?"
When I worked for a summer in Michigan about 7 years ago. I got some crap because I drove a Japanese car. When we were shopping for that car, I remember my father looking through the owner's manual of a Chevy and seeing that the car was assembled in Mexico. Now, my mother works at an auto plant in the middle of Illinois. They make Mitsubishis. What's an American car anyway?
What is American anyway? Origination? If that's the case, there are almost no "Americans" and there are few, if any products that are made entirely of materials that originated in the US. Especially if you include the origination of the technology and machinery used in their manufacture. Even the truck that broght them to the store where you bought them was probably deisel powered. That was invented by a French Citizen educated in Germany. We sure as hell didn't come up with the ideas of Democracy, Liberty, Freedom or any of that sort of thing. So, origination doesn't define "American."
Maybe it's completion. Assembled in USA? Does that make a product American? Born in the USA? Does that make a person American? If that's the case, George Washington was not an American, Ben Franklin was not an American. That Chevy shure as hell wasn't American. What about Albert Einstein?
What makes something American? And does it matter? Is it better to buy from an "American" company like Nike that sells a large quantity of products made over-seas? or from a "foreign" company like Mitsubishi or Honda which hires hundreds of American workers in places like Ohio and Illinois?
Back to Michigan. When I worked there, the theater I was at was a Union House. I was an intern. That meant I got all the crappy jobs. It also meant I worked 12-16 hour days pretty much every day. There were many days when I'd be working for my $250 a week next to someone with the same skill set who was getting double-time union pay. I'm not against unions. I've been a member of a union in the past, and there's a good chance that I will be again. The same union that these people were in. But people take things too far some times. One day, while I was taking a break, I picked up a newspaper that was lying on a chair near me and glanced through it. One of the people I worked with proceeded to chastise me because this particular paper had not sided with the union in a recent dispute at one of the Auto Plants in Detroit.
This is, to me, the definition of "Un-American". To attempt to silence an opinion because it differs from yours.
That's it.
Right or wrong, every opinion has the right to be heard. Many opinions should be quickly and thouroughly rebutted and shown to be wrong, but they still have the right to be heard. I'm not just talking about the cliche comments about "I hate what you say, but I'll fight to the death to defend your right to say it." when applied to things like Nazism or Racism. But what about when applied to such offensive things like Christianity? People have made a huge issue of displaying the 10 commandments in public places. I don't understand this. What is even remotely offensive about the 10 commandments? Don't kill, don't lie, stay true to your beliefs, and don't be a dick to other people. That pretty much sums it up.
If you are worried about American or Un-American, you're probably being pretty Un-American yourself. Go about your life and do what you can to make the world (and thereby America) a little better. That's as American as it gets.
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