Doy  140  2021   (20 May 2021)

Who is us?

When I returned to this country, I learned about how generous it was.  The kids I had grown up among in Brasil would have been surprised.  They knew Americans as loud people who smiled and made warm, friendly noises but always had battleships, or later, aircraft carriers, standing behind those noises.  Americans, more properly UnitedStatesians, invaded Central and South American countries when the direction of the breeze changed.  The United States claimed to protect Central and South America, but it protected them kinda like cops protect us.  Surely you've seen pictures of bloodied heads, stoved in ribs, and damaged feet?  That kind of protection.

Now, yes, we did have the Marshall Plan.  Britain, France, and Germany thrived with its help, and so did a few other countries.  And every year Congress made a fuss about how long we must support all those handout countries.  That's generosity, isn't it?  Until Vietnam came along and we spent ourselves deaf, dumb, and blind trying to liberate people who just wanted to be left alone.  In the end, all we had to show for that war was the debts we had accumulated fighting over there.  Oh, and pretty much the end of any Marshal Plan talk.

Except the talk about how generous we are.  Surely the rest of the world must see that and thank us, right?  Right?