big swod industries

In so much as we see ourselves generally only in the mirror of American media, the fact that there are other views of which are not absolutly true, but essintially accurate are needed in this modern America. Taking a step back and looking at what we are becoming from an ousiders window is a wonderous and frightening image. We are not seen as we see ourselves, but our peception of ourselves and our need to make others see us this way are detrimental to that cause of portrying us being a truly great nation. The world see us as this: We as America are just a fledgling upstart, barely a child in terms of being a great civilization, we have taken from the world what we need, learned from the empires of the past how to be great, and then turned around and spat in the faces of so many who we stand on the shoulders of their past greatness. You can see it in the faces of people from those cultures and communities. You can see it in how they move and speak and look at you when you proudly proclaim you are American.They also see that we have given back to the world in so many ways, many good, many bad, but we have given it back to the world and whatever has come of it we cannot take anything back. I love America. It is the premier country to live in, and I would live and die for her. Close your eyes and see us as we are, we are more advanced than the vast majority of the world, at least in how we perceive advancment, but I keep getting the image of us being a gorilla with a shotgun and I can't get it out of my head. I have travelled and really integrated and lived with a blue collar street level community (think Pittsburg, but in the UK) and have seen what we look like in the eyes of not a global media image, but in the eyes of our closest global neighbors as individual persons. I have lived along side these folks, not as a fucking tourist, but as a member of their worlds. To see not the broad generalities of a country, but the family next door or across the street working to eat, and drive and send their kids to school, to hear the honest opinions of real people, working real jobs, and trying real hard to make a life in a world where America dominates even the everyday. We are everywhere, now that is a fact that many accept without really thinking about it, but we are everywhere; in the breakfast cereals that your kids want just because it is from America, from the TV shows that are broadcasted globally and really don't do us any favors trying to change the image that we are very violent, that our stuff, our technology makes us better than you, that where you live is crap if you don't live here, that we are the light of the world and all others are behind us. We are trying to change and be the great nation that we already see ourselves as, but the rest of the world is still waiting for us to earn it. You can see it in their eyes... YOU CAN FUCKING SEE IT. 300 years is an eye-blink to most formerly great societies, and it can't be denied that we do fight and defend and aid and corrupt and conquor, we help and hinder, sacrifice greatly and love deeply and have a temper of a bully on the playground. God I love this land, but God we have hurt so many in our race to be great as fast as possible. We are such a contadiction, not only to those who see us, but to those who see us as we are. I grew up the proudest American you can imagine; mom, apple pie, the Dallas Cowboys, REALLY, and am still proud to be American. But living abroad and starting my family abroad and seeing my home from abroad, it can be seen in my eyes now, that we are so young, so gawky and awkward as we grow into what we are capable of becoming, that we can do so much for this world, so much good. We are a good people, we just have to prove it to all, and not just the ones that we deem deserve it. We are loved and so hated, they just want us to acheive our potential. You can see it. They want us to unite them, not by force, but by leading instead of telling, by giving the proper respect for the past of all nations and not just the past few centuries of our infant existence. Anyway, I am just rambling and my thoughts are not as coherant as I wish the y could be, but this is what I have seen with my other eyes, the eyes that were opened just a little bit wider, the eyes that still look at American in all its wonder, and that see the world that is still trying to teach the know-it-all new kid to control its strength.