Exactly why do you choose to live in Canada? Kind of sounds like you hate it.
Often times I do.
I live here because I was invited - and for the first couple of years it was a WELCOME respite.
But over time I saw a group of people...an entire society at large turn what was always a friendly brotherly type rivalry into just ugliness - vicious ugliness.
Some examples:
That day a few years ago on the anniversary of 9/11 when Andy Barrie had some punk ass kid on his show and allowed them to mock the angst of Americans without interruption of commentary
That day when someone walked down the street and mocked my (Canadian) wife for receiving a parking ticket simply because the car she was driving had U.S. plates
Then of course the day referenced above where a watched 16 and 17 year olds get booed by a crowd that had been gracious to every other team simply because they were wearing red white and blue.
Add to the the hundreds of times in nine years people have insulted me directly or indirectly upon discovering that I was an American
(most recent example...out with a gal on our 2nd date...go into an art gallery....there is a picture of Stephen harper with the owner of the gallery....my date, being a typical Toronto liberal, just has to know how said picture came to be, where upon the owner explains that heavens no, she doesn't share Harper's politics, but he is a distant relative....a few words are exchanged, and then date says to the other woman that I probably don't really understand the context of the conversation because I am an American...to which the woman replies "oh...too bad for you...lol" Would she say that in regards to my being Black? What if it had been revealed that I was gay?)
- and then the general lack of sympathy for having to live under such conditions (by comparison, being Black is a breeze, let me tell you), and yeah often times I hate it. I was reminded as much last year when I left for several months on business...how refreshing it was to not have to live with daily insults and disparagement both from people directly and in the media.
The real shame is how happy I was when i first got here...I was DELIRIOUS...so fucking glad to be out of New York....and so glad to be someplace where life was at a different pace and people were indeed kind and polite.
And then somebod(ies) decided my Black mostly liberal ass was somehow accountable and responsible for the actions of a white guy I've never met and who I had no say in bring into power...and whose politics I don't agree with. And everywhere I went...I was either asked to explain or justify....or people just took the direct route and hurdled an insult. And it hasn't let up, even though that guy isn't in power anymore.
Americans are this...Americans are that....you hear it everywhere, people repeating things that are absurd....how the hell can three hundred million people all be ANYTHING? And I am supposed to understand that mind you, they aren't talking about ME...even though it is ME they are saying all this to, and they know I am an American...and besides, its all in good humor anyway, right?
So yeah... one last time...I do hate it...and again, having landed another gig in another local, I am leaving. And I won't miss it anymore than you will miss me.
Try living someplace other than Toronto for awhile and you will get a glimpse into my world....I took a perverse pleasure during my time in Edmonton at how much apparently everybody else in Canada hates Toronto...and dont' really hate Americans all that much....
