GlitterBuzzStyle Women's Issues - When Our Reputation is Dirty, What Will YOU Do?

Bear with me ladies, because this is a very very long women's issue article, but its an important one. Recently, a Ms. Ana Maria Silva from Lisbon Portugal wrote a letter to the President on a website asking him to correct some of what she believes are American faults. We all know that much of Europe as well as other countries have not been too fond of the US, nor the US citizens in recent times. The letter from this Portugese woman gives you an idea just what some people from other countries think of us. Its not very flattering or fair, but it exists nonetheless. The following response letter is one that I wrote in response, that was pasted on the same webpage, and I thought I would share it with all of you, because I know you will feel much of the same injustice that I did, when reading what some foreigners think about US citizens, especially when it comes from a women. I want to emphasize, that the respone is not so that we can all start returning the dislike of foreign and/or European citizens, but so that we can be aware, and understand that when we leave our country, the way that we behave in foreign lands DOES reflect on our nation, and whether it is good or bad, it leaves an impression. So please, keep this in mind when you've read the following letter and the response. Also, if any of you have any replies, responses, or comments - feel free to send them on in, we want to hear what you have to say about it.

Dear President Obama

by Ana Maria Silva

Lisbon, Portugal12 November, 2008

Dear President Obama,
I'm not a US citizen nor do I want to be one. The fact that you managed to be elected makes me believe that you might be able to make a real difference. I'll be speaking on behalf of Europe, not because I believe we're better or more important than anyone else, but simply because this is where I live and so I believe I should speak about something that I know well.
Please Mr. President show your people the truth about left-wing politics so that they know that Communists do not eat little children for breakfast and that sometimes you just have to change your political view.
Please Mr. President I know the USA is a very large country but please show your people that there's a big big world out there and that not everyone speaks English and that not everyone shares your thoughts. Please show them that most Germans are not Nazis, that not all Russians are bearded communists, that we also have loads of modern buildings, not just old haunted castles and palaces.
Please Mr. President try to make your people more travelled and open-minded. As you know, most people in Europe think most people in the US are just plain stupid. University students coming from the US to Europe faced serious difficulties when 'trying their luck' with European girls because the reputation of US citizens was so low. Please help put an end to this!
Please Mr. President, bring the troops home. War is a very bad thing.
Please Mr. President I'm very concerned about your Social Security system. From what I've heard your social healthcare is very modern: it's virtual! I mean, people pay taxes and it's only fair they get something out of that. But please don't fall into the mistake of giving the people the fish instead of teaching them how to fish. Please Mr. President take a look at our own example: State provided healthcare in Portugal is very cheap when compared to the prices you have to pay in private clinics. Some things are even for free. A cytology, which is of vital importance for women, is absolutely free whereas you can pay something like 80€ to 100€ if you go to the private sector. Contraceptives are all free: you just have to be registered at your local healthcare center, they give you a little bulletin and every time you need you go there, you show the bulletin and they give you condoms, pills or whatever contraceptive method you use. This is only fair, given the fact that we pay taxes! We also have a kind of grant or government aid or whatever you call it over there that goes to families in which the parents are unemployed and the kids are in school. This is also fair, what can be so bad about this? Well, Mr. president we're having more and more cases of families (big families) in which the parents don't work and are not looking for jobs either, making a living from taxpayer money. Please note that in cases such as these families can actually get nearly as much money as a 'middle-class' family. And the kids don't really profit from this in their school life - most of the times they skip school! This, Mr. President, has clearly been a case of the Government giving the fish instead of teaching people how to fish. And, of course, honest families with difficulties will eventually have to pay for dishonest ones or become dishonest themselves.
Please Mr. President show your people that you're not the best at everything and please, please, tell your tourists to stop addressing people from other countries in either a patronizing or superior tone. The USA are not the center of the world!
Please Mr. President, believe me when I tell you that 90% of the people don't really like the Texas accent. Maybe no one had the courage to tell you this before, but believe me this is true.
Please Mr. President try not to be like other US presidents before you who claimed to fight for freedom wherever freedom was needed but who forgot a country in Europe that had a right-wing regime from 1926 to 1974. As you know this country had, and still has, a very convenient military air base at a place called Lajes. Do you think that that had anything to do with the fact that US troops didn't fight for freedom in that country? That maybe your country didn't want to put that same military airbase in jeopardy?
I'll respectfully leave you with that thought, Mr. President.

In response to the letter to our president from a Ms. Ana Maria Silva,
Thank you for your concern about those halfway across the world from you. So many people often do not take interest in those outside of their own homes, much less their own countries. I am happy that you have faith in our new president as we do.
There are some assumptions in your letter that I would like to clarify, in case you were not aware.
Not all American citizens are gun-wielding, egocentric, ethnocentric morons. Consider perhaps, that though the government is elected by the people, the people are not always happy with the choices they are provided with. While we vote upon the candidates, we do not decide who runs, and the Primaries force us to narrow the choices down even further to only two candidates, one from each major political party. However, regarding the initial process of determining who will run for president, at least 95% of the US population does have any part in deciding who those candidates will be. In short, the elections we hold every four years have many times been merely a choice between the lesser of evils. Yes, the American people on the whole were stupid for electing George W. Bush for a second term. We have suffered for our misjudgement, and nearly everyone in the country recognized the horrible mistake very quickly into his second term. For almost half of us, we realized that he should never have been elected in the first place. He did not win easily, and there is still debate as to whether he won the popular vote in the second election. Fortunately for the American people, this time we were given a worthy man of uncommon integrity as a candidate for president, and we as a nation glanced back at our recent previous decision, considered our futures, and decisively elected Barack Obama to be our president. This has given many of us a new hope that has been long awaited, and is accompanied with the pride of having made history with a shining example of Commander in Chief - perhaps the best we will ever have - and I say that with the utmost confidence, because that is how much I believe in our newly elected president. Many families are now looking forward to the days that President Obama will lead us, and will correct some of the short-sighted economic strides and reprehensible international policies that were established during the past unfortunate eight years of a greedy, arrogant U.S. Executive Administration.
Consider perhaps that many US citizens hate the war in Iraq, and have from the very start. Consider perhaps that George W. Bush is the most disliked US president in all history, due to the war in Iraq, and due to his disgusting international dealings. The self-righteous and greedy nature of his administration has put our entire country in a state of economic distress, unemployment is way up and still rising, and health care, welfare, and social security are still issues in dire need of reform and rebuilding. Men and women across the country are losing jobs on a daily basis, because his politics and economics allow corporations and monopolized businesses to ship our jobs across the border and overseas for cheap labor. His administration has given us one lousy stimulus check to try to make up for the rapid decline of our financial stability - but even then, only the middle class were given money. Those who did not earn the minimum amount of money stipulated in his plan because they were unemployed or disabled, received significantly less or nothing at all. Even the money he gave away discriminated against poorer families and individuals.
Regarding the assumption of the American perspective on Communism - not all of us, or even most of us, think Communism is some kind of war crime or terror of humanity, and many of us lean toward Marxism and Socialism. I worked for a publication and arts organization in NYC that publicly and proudly announced itself as a Socialist organization and publication. The older folks who thought that Communism was a terrible thing - understand that they were brainwashed into believing that due to their government misleading them, and forcing them to undergo bomb drills over and over, in case the "communists" should start a war. However, that was over 50 years ago. Its time to catch up and realize most of the people that think communists are evil, are either dead, or have realized that it is an untruth. So if you would like us to realize that not all Germans are Nazis (which we know, because many of us are of German descent) than please also consider that not all Americans are Communist-hating bigots. While very few nations have successfully implemented Communism, most American citizens are aware that people that live in Communist countries are no more evil than anyone else, and due to our recent Executive Administration, many of us realize that our own leaders can quickly become the ones who eat little children for breakfast.
And of course not everyone in the world speaks English. We as a people cannot change our public school systems overnight, and for any child to get a quality education that may teach a foreign language at a young age, their parents have to fork out thousands of dollars to a private school. Many families simply cannot afford that, and therefore have to settle for the meager education that our school systems provide. Again, this is not the fault of individual American citizens and families. Don't you think we would change our education system if we could? Don't you think many parents and community members are doing what they can to implement educational programs that challenge children in better and more versatile ways? There is a European Program that is offered here in some schools, but certainly not all of them, and it doesn't begin until 9th grade. That is much later than when most European and Asian children start learning foreign languages. Again, our options are limited, and most families do not have the extra time and money to make sure their child is learning another language. Right now, many of us are struggling just to keep our houses and be able to drive to work every day. Some of us have gone out of our way to have European educations. I myself joined a program called the International Baccaleureate Program when I was in high school, and my tests were all sent to Europe to be graded at the end of my secondary education - and I did very well. So again, not all of us are monkeys that run around scratching ourselves, jumping up and down, fascinated by shiny objects.
As we get older, many of us learn other languages. Some of us become fluent, most of us do not, but we do know there is a huge world out there that we would like to see, and it helps to prepare oneself for those journies. I myself speak Russian and Spanish.
On a side note, nobody here likes the Texas accent either. Whoever gave you the impression that we are proud of Texan accents, was probably from Texas.
It seems that more and more, Americans as a whole are being judged for their media, for their government, and for other unfair representations that are put forth on our "behalf." Just as many other untruths occur, so does it for the American people. Sure, we have a lot of stubborn old peope that are Bible-thumping, Jesus-touting Christians, and once they believe something is a sin, there's nothing you can say to change it. Sure we have bigots and racists and narrow-minded, uncultured people that never realize how much bigger the world is than what is merely around only themselves. However, most of us are aware that in recent years, our government has done us a huge injustice, and because of it, we are now one of the most hated peoples in the world. Is that fair? Is it fair that because we had a horrible president and government, that now suddenly all Americans are blabbering idiots who think football is the number one sport in the world? I for one, am tired of hearing about how much the rest of the world hates Americans. We have very little to do with the injustices and loud-mouthed "freedoms" that our politicians have supposedly won for other nations. We can't save the whole world, and we can't be perfect. No one can. Every single nation on this earth has committed horrible crimes and terrible sins in the process of establishing herself, whether in past or present times. Unless there have been tremendous crimes against humanity, no one has the right to point the finger at another nation and tell them what they are doing wrong. That includes the US, because the US tends to do it more often than anyone else. Generally speaking, if you aren't going to help, then shut-up. We elected our first black president because of who he was, what he stands for, and what he wants to do - and we are damn proud of it, and we are damn proud of him. I am hoping that we are coming to a point where the rest of the world will finally realize that Americans do not belch in your face when you shake their hand, and many of us are soccer fans...or football fans, depending on which country you are in. I for one, am tired of being categorically condescended because I happen to be an American citizen, and if you expect us to open our eyes, please also open yours.

photo taken by the AP , and found at http://www.barackobama.com/