Travel Fear

Hey do you know people who are afraid to travel outside the US?

So do I. Lots and lots of them actually. I wonder why that is exactly, although it seems the people most worried about other countries never go to them anyway. They watch the news and pseudo-news and make decisions about people and countries, globalization, travel and safety without any firsthand, real knowledge at all.

I have noticed recently with this big health care insurance debate the people who are sure we have the best system, the best health care, are the ones who never travel anywhere. The people who are certain Canada has a socialist system that doesn’t work and is inferior to ours are people who haven’t been to Canada in years or not at all. Rick Steves has some ideas on this:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/ricksteves/archives/174558.asp
Now if people don’t have the money or means to travel that is perfectly understandable but the people I am discussing here are individuals that definitely do have the means, they are people who speak loudly about the world and how it works and their opinion of it. The trouble is someone else on TV gave them their opinion.

I can’t imagine an Asian Food Writer, writing about Asian Food without ever going there, or someone hiring an NFL coach who got all his coaching ideas off reading books and watching a few movies, but no actual coaching. The point is “book learning” with no actual real experience is so very, very limited that in many cases it is useless or even dangerous. Check this video below about Amsterdam which Bill O’Reilly terms a “cesspool”. Does it look like a cesspool to you? Or is it in actuality a city nicer than 90% of all American cities. Granted it is just a video of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTPsFIsxM3w Visit Amsterdam

I have been saying lately that some fundamental changes need to be made in American life. Yes, I do need to write them down, make a list. One is that I think every kid out of high school should do two years of compulsory service to their country, their country being the USA. This could include the military of course but should have a wide range of opportunities, like the Peace Corps and also a domestic corps to help out in all the myriad of ways our country needs help right now. I also think it would be a really, really good idea that every citizen be required to visit at least three foreign countries. How this could be done I am not sure although certainly people in the military travel. The requirement could be: one country in South America, one somewhere in Europe and one in Asia or Africa.

Would these citizens come back the same or would they have a much larger, more expansive, big picture of the world and its many problems? Would they be so quick to hop in their large Ford trucks with huge flags and race up and down the main street of their small town, demanding we bomb someone in another country who has never attacked us and poses no real threat to us?
Would people just think more? Would they realize there are many ways to do things and people in other countries are perfectly happy as they are, and they do not want to be molded after America?
This would horrify many people of course. They revel in the fact so many are small minded and scared of things they can’t even describe because they don’t exist. They are powerful because of others fear. George Bush gained huge amounts of power because of widespread panic, and senseless fear after 9-11.
Can you believe that we still can’t fly to Cuba? We can go vacation in North Vietnam (the domino theory was bullshit it turns out), and be perfectly fine and happy, but Cuba is forbidden. The whole thing would be funny if it were not so sad.

It has become somewhat of a trend to take a high

school graduate on a big trip to celebrate their change of life from the 12 year public school to high education or the work force. Do you want your child to have big dreams? Show them first-hand how big and wonderful, and truly amazing our world really is!