I had the displeasure of reading your article in the Columbia Spectator and felt compelled to respond. First of all, it is not surprising to see "another American" being thrown off when faced with a different culture. Your reaction is typical, expected, pathetic, and the reason why you all are hated all over the world. You should not travel so far to pass jugement on a country just because they are different. Instead you should try and make an effort to understand, become familiar with, and adapt to their traditions and culture·.

Secondly, as far as the porn being shown on TV is concerned (how inocent and naive are you?) for your information, the USA is the Mecca of Porn and prostitution·. But let us go a step further, the ultimate sex venue is your beloved White House where interns give blow jobs for free and cigars are used in ways that really show a lot of imagination...Of couse, your right wing conservative congressional leaders (known as Republicans) decide that this is an isolated case in America and the President should be booted out of office ... (HAHAHAHAHAH) As life would have it, The Republicans were equally corrupt... So, I ask, is a show of public affection so bad??? HYPOCRITES!!! you have no moral or ethical right to answer or pass jugement on the topic. Take a good look within, before you criticize others...

So you are afraid to relate to other cultures, particularly because when faced with the tough questions you don't have the brains for an intelligent answer. The solution, easy, just relate to other Americans while abroad and keep the bubble alive. You travel all the way out there to "meet Americans," truly brilliant. All the poo you find on the streets of Europe seems to reside in the brains of most Americans. Perhaps so many sitcoms did it. Lastly, your views of other cultures (not tolerating them) is the closet thing to RACISM there is. First you don't tolerate another culture, then you don't tolearate another person's race or ethnic background. And that's why America is the last country left on the earth where RACISM is still an issue (just listen to John Rocker's or Patrick Buchanan's latest comments). Other countries are never going to be like you. In fact, your destruction, the destruction of the Putrid Bubble will come from within. Your rigth wing conservatives, your skin heads, your racists, your armed children, your police officers that kill based on race, your churches being burned down, your corrupt polititians will destroy America from within. Nobody outside has to do it. YOU ARE DOING IT YOURSELVES. So, again, take a good look within yourself, if you dare, before you critizice others outside your putrid bubble.

sincerely,
A Soldier against American Imperialism and Racism.


Dear Mr./Ms. Solidier Against American Imperialism and Racism:

As I try to keep my eyes from watering from the stench in this Putrid Bubble I have brought with me from the U.S., I will try to fashion a response to your letter.

Firstly, I will assume you read my article in the Fed, and not in the Spectator as you claim.

Second, I will take your comments seriously, as you clearly took my article. I will try to "take a good look within, before [I] criticize others."

And having done so, I will maintain that my article proposed that one approach it with a humorous attitude and not as a real guide to how to view such an original entity as Spain.

I do not disagree that Americans are hated all over the world, nor do I disagree that it is because of our imperialist and closed minded attitude, on occasion, that keeps us patronizing McDonald's in foreign countries. But, to be honest, it's not American customers that keep McD's successful in Spain. It's Spaniards. And it's not Americans that beat up immigrants in El Ejido about a month ago. Again, Spaniards. All I mean to say is American Imperialism is not without its foreign accomplices, nor has racism been patented, copyrighted, and now under exclusive use in the U.S.

So while I apologize for offending anyone by seeming to encourage racism by mimicking an intolerant American attitude, I don't apologize for using it to highlight a few genuinely quirky differences about Spain when seen through an American eye.

And, I'm sorry, the dog poo situation is simply unhygienic.