George Bush, McDonalds & Me

I spent some time wandering around an antiques mall the other day. I read about this mall in the weekend papers as somewhere where actress Sienna Miller found a very chic purse that she carried to a recent premiere or something. It mentioned it also carried an eclectic (read cheap!) selection of furniture and odds/ends. So I thought I would mosey on over and see if I could find a trunk or chest that we could use as a coffee table. There are several of these types of malls here in London. They are comprised really of all these little shops and stalls together, each one individually owned but all the shops are under one roof. A lot of them carry silver, china, collectibles, a mish mash of stuff. On a weekday, this place is pretty empty but I bet on a weekend it is packed. All the owner/operators of the stalls sit outside of their little spaces passing the time of day with each other. I wandered in and out of several stores. It wasn’t really what I was looking for but I enjoyed looking at all of the stuff. I wandered up to another floor and in the corner were three shop owners talking the news of the day. I heard a woman say very loudly in her English accent “they had another one yesterday”. Some general tsk-tsking going on. Then she says “All these school shootings over there. It is the third one this week. I tell you America is one dangerous place. I wouldn’t go there!” More noises of general agreement from her companions. Then she says “Three things America gives us – ‘orrible violence like these shootings, McDonalds and George Bush!”

Certainly she had no idea I was American because I hadn’t spoken a word, I was just browsing. But it reminded me of this interesting phenomenon that goes on here that I have heard of but haven’t yet experienced. Some of the other Americans I have met have told me of stories where someone will bait you with a political point usually on the war and you are expected to defend the policies of the United States because you are a citizen. Like everyone voted for George Bush or, to use my experience above as an example, we all own stock in McDonalds and personally profit from every Big Mac sold. Hey! Wait a minute we do own stock in McDonalds, or my kids do (thanks Mom & Dad!) but I think you get my point. You cease being a person when you live in a different country you become the country you are from or at least its envoy and you are personally responsible for every bad decision (because lets face it, no one gets credit for any of the good deeds) your country has made or participated in since the Revolutionary War. Surprisingly enough, they still aren’t over that one here! Chizz tells story of going to a favorite pub on a Sunday afternoon with the Sunday paper. He had just settled in, ordered his first drink, looking at the paper when a woman next to him leaned over and said something along the line “Your president has made Tony Blair his poodle”. Hmmm. Apparently she had heard his accent when he ordered his beer and felt she should engage him in a little political discourse. He said he tried to have an discussion with her but it was obvious she had been there since Saturday reading the papers and was just looking for a little bit of a fight. He argued with her a bit and then went back to his paper. Personally I can’t look at Tony Blair the same way anymore.

I don’t think Kiki & Snake have encountered this yet because most of the kids they go to school with are American but I do think I need to prepare them with some kind of response should someone accost them along these lines. I think I am going to adopt something one of their swim coaches told them last year before a big swim meet. Our swim team is fairly large and we do seem to win a good portion of the events. This has caused some hard feelings among the other teams in our conference and sometimes the other swimmers will say mean things to our team members. Coach E has taught them whenever someone says something mean to them they are supposed to say, “I am sorry you feel that way. I am just here to swim fast. Good luck in your race.” And then they are supposed to move on. Now I have to modify that a bit because I think the British would be confused by the declaration that we are just here to swim fast. So I think we will say, “I am sorry you feel that way. We are just here to fulfill a contractual agreement. Good luck with your dental work.” Maybe I should work on that a bit. Anyway, go eat some Big Macs - my kids want to go to an Ivy League school!!