Americans are out to get you!

My wife and I were walking down the street a few months ago and for now reason we stopped to look at what was down on the sidewalk. We were just two people in love walking down the street admiring the weird patterns in the concrete that make up the sidewalks in our town. Ah, life.

One part caught our attention because the concrete had a weird shap to it. It appeared that orginally the concrete in the sidewalk had been pured in such a way as to go around a tree that was no longer there. And the spot where the tree was missing from was filled in sometime later to make up for the gap that the tree had left.

Two seconds after looking up and continuing on our way, a 50's-ish man walking his dog passes us and asks: "Did you fall?" And before we could respond and thank him for his gentle concern, he finishes: "If you fell, go down to city hall and tell them you're going to sue." Uh, OK.

My wife and I were both kind of stunned to be faced with such a suggestion from this guy. Maybe we're just naive about our walks around town. But do we need to sue the first time we fall down? I guess there are plenty of people who genuinely get hurt from a municipality's intentional negligence of city sidewalks. But that wouldn't be the case ALL the time.

I thought about this little incident a little bit afterwards and it revealed to me something interesting. I think that this guy's reaction is a common one in the people of the US of A. Something goes wrong, get someone to string up. You hurt yourself, get someone fired. You spill hot coffee on yourself, file a laysuit. You eat too much junk-food and make yourself too obese for the world, get yourself a lawyer. Remember these three little words when dealing with any problem: sue, sue, sue.

Not only is this attitude applicable to domestic issues in the US, but perhaps it reflects in foreign policy. Someone bombs our nation, Taliban, Afghanis, Iraqis, We don't care, just make someone pay. This is probably best seen in the apparent acceptance by Americans that Iraq is the 'front line' for the war on terror when the 9-11 commission found no working connection between Iraq and Al Qeada. (Osama who?) Just as long as there are some cool pictures of American forces kicking some ass on the nightly news. There's almost a vigilante notion of justice here that isn't just at all, this is more like revenge. And if it happens that (oops) we got the wrong guy? Who cares as long as someone is held responsible. It's scary to think that so many Americans out there have this mindset. If I was a European or living in the Mid-East or something I'd be scared out of my mind. Americans are out to get us! Or somebody!

And this tendency to attach blame to others is also one that helps to remove others from the finger pointing. Instead of holding our leaders accountable (like Bush for the current mess in Iraq) we excuse them in order to help justify our own position/beliefs. Instead of looking at our way of life, examining the problems and potential pitfalls, we overlook the obvious and simplest starting points for change, our own lives. Instead of looking to put blame on someone everytime we get knocked or fall on our own butts, we have some introspection to do first.