The Focal Point For All Opinions Of America

We often use this rather talented, older English illustrator when we need illustrations for our clients. I really like him. He's the gentle, considerate kind of English that is easy to enjoy. Affable to the point of verbosity, conversations have a tendency to get away from him. I ran into him outside having a cigarette today.

And apparently, because I am American, he thought he would tell me about a radio program/programme about America he'd heard last night.

This guy, Simon Mayo, went travelling to five/5 cities around America and reported back. And my friend was stunned, as he said, by the poverty and despair Mr. Mayo found in Detroit. Now, anyone who has seen Roger & Me or 8 Mile, or read a few papers in the past few years, knows how bad it is these days in Detroit, and just how many hard-working people there are struggling to get even a little moment of the comfort we so easily buy.

But my friend didn't. And he had to tell me about his ignorance. He said America had always been portrayed as the City on the Hill; shiny, new, a place where everyone was wealthy, or at least wealthier than most people in Britain. He'd never learned about the dark side of the American Dream.

So I sat there and listen to him tell me loads of information I already knew. And he would (or should, if he was a thinking man) know that I would know. Which meant that the conversation wasn't really about telling me about America. It was about telling me that he liked America and Americans. So it was about trying to impress upon me that he thought I was an OK guy.

Which, when your country is the Eliot Spitzer of the world, is not a bad compliment at all. Even if getting there took awhile.