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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Phew! Canada just dodged a bullet... or at least the threat of the armed and angry wingnut followers of ex-Fox News uber-host Tucker Carlson cascading across the 49th parallel to rescue the remnants of the tattered truckers’ convoy of yesteryear.
Presumably Rupert Murdoch’s bastion of American introspection, which was funding the next episode of its erstwhile host’s Originals “documentaries” which was calling for the United States to invade Canada and liberate it from its own – albeit more socialist – government in the name of freedom, will let the doc die the ignominious death it deserves.
Anyway, wasn’t that concept hoary news? Surely Michael Moore’s 1995 satire Canadian Bacon with the U.S. President’s laughable attempt to improve his ratings by declaring war on his country’s northern neighbor set an impossibly low barrier?
Didn’t South Park take it to highs unlikely to be matched with Cartman and the gang returning the two neighbors to peace after the U.S. invasion shows too much of the immorality rampant south of the 49th parallel?
But the fact that this documentary was even considered and many millions spent underlines that the United States has a huge problem – image-wise, and with regards to how the government, administration after administration, chooses to spend our tax dollars.
Proxy wars against Russia and China, meddling in the politics of African and South and Central American countries, two disastrous Gulf Wars, propping up dictatorships in Iran, the Philippines, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia.
Selling weapons to whomever wants to buy them (through proxies to get around the stickier points of laws). Finding excuses with gay abandon to send young men off to die for corporate profits.
Hasn’t the U.S. government created enough carnage, spent itself into the ground so far too limited tax dollars remain to help Americans here at home?
But maybe it’s what is not at home – decent health care for all, a somewhat functional government that is more accountable to the electorate than the Wall Street managed duopoly of the United States, a Bill of Rights that focuses on the common good rather than individual rights – is what is so attractive about our northern neighbor.
And that the corporate interests that fund the candidates at all levels of American government don’t see health and good educations, peace and altruism as profit centers.
When the United States was shutting its borders to Syrian refugees, Canada not only welcomed them but groups of ordinary citizens across the country banded together to ensure that these new residents had a helping hand in finding places to live, programs for food, language support, and assistance in navigating the bureaucracy.
Certainly there was pushback, fear of what people who looked different, didn’t speak English or French, had dissimilar customs, and prayed on Friday instead of Saturday or Sunday.
The newcomers may not have had money but almost all were willing to work at a time when many communities had been hemorrhaging workers, to the cities, to the States, and to retirement as the Baby Boomers aged.
In many cases they brought expertise as well, from family businesses to medical training, which helped win over suspicious locals.
And as they got to know their new neighbors, it was their similarities that began to bridge the divide. Hopes for the children, concerns about the environment, which politicians supported the issues about which they were most concerned.
These connections are happening here, south of the border as well, all across this great land – from Minnesota to Louisiana, from Seattle to Orlando.
So, why can’t our elected officials not get on board and stop pitting community against community until we all become the dispossessed?
Perhaps they, too, are like most people and pets – the grass always looks greener on the far side of the fence.
And quite often they are right. Europe looks safer for Arabs displaced by years of internal conflict. People from Central America and Mexico are the victims of gang strife and see safety and economic benefits north of the Rio Grande.
And Americans – whose government has too often fomented these migrations – where can we go?
In recent generations, the Pentagon has certainly failed miserably in using force to protect American business interests, or even demonstrate that the U.S. military is better than all others. It certainly costs us too much.
Meanwhile, our local economies have been sold out to the multinationals.
Why can’t we elect leaders who will give us what we want – peace, good jobs, affordable housing quality healthcare, an unpolluted environment and safe streets?
But with all the resources – physical and intellectual – available in the United States, make it truly American-style - bigger, better and leaving the rest of the world to catch up.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
