I’m NOT Brittany Spears, Hollywood, or the US government!!

Sigh. 9:50am, sitting on a bus in the Brisbane bus terminal, waiting to be taken out to the airport. The bus left Byron Bay at 6:55am. It was a struggle getting up after last night. I didn’t have that late of a night (was in bed by midnight), but that was mainly because I started so early. Nearly everyone in the house was already drinking at 5pm playing various drinking games. I’m quite sure they got drunk pretty quickly because when I went in for my first glass of wine at 7pm, I saw Dave running around in a pair of women’s thong underwear which was what he had to do as a result of losing the game. It was pretty hilarious. Good entertainment just watching them play.

Anyway I had a few drinks and then Kate and I headed over to Aquarius to visit James and his friend Simon. Everyone there seemed pretty tanked when we showed up. James was all fired up and we only saw him for a few minutes before he took off to somewhere, who knows. Then it was just Simon (England), Kate (Nova Scotia, Canada), and me.

And as much as I wanted to avoid the subject, the conversation turned to 9-11. It all started out because Simon started complaining about how during the US Open there were about 10 big American flags being held in the audience, and he thought it was complete shite because the Americans were just showing off to the world how great they think they are. And I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t like that at all actually that they were just remembering Sept. 11 and showing respect and that they are not afraid to be American and that it has nothing to do with being better than anyone else. And I asked why at the World Cup can everyone wave flags like crazy for their country and that’s FINE, but when Americans do it, we’re being obnoxious? It’s a double standard.

And well it just went on and on from there, and I heard all of the things that I really didn’t feel like hearing again, especially yesterday, about why does America always interfere with the rest of the world and how we as Americans had Sept. 11 coming to us for a long time. And we shouldn’t expect any sympathy from the rest of the world because in Britain they deal with terrorism from the IRA every day, so why do we think we’re special? And I was getting it from everyone around me. It is SO tiring to have to answer for an ENTIRE government and the history of a nation, and I am getting really sick of being the world’s punching bag out here.

Normally I try to be very diplomatic about these conversations, but the combination of the wine and the anniversary of 9-11 caused me to get much more emotional about the subject, and in the end I was saying something to the effect that everyone there would be speaking German if it wasn’t for us. Looking back, it’s actually kind-of funny.

Honestly though, it seems to be the British more than anyone else who always try to bully me into these discussions. I left last night feeling really sad and disappointed that people could be so cruel, especially on the anniversary of it all. And this morning I still felt upset, but I have to remind myself that it’s just ignorance and hate and it’s easy to hate something you have no connection to, and I have a really hard time believing that if any of those people who jump on me for being American were in NYC on 9-11 that they would be saying anything like they do.

I can’t let it change me feelings about Australia either because the Australians (that is the citizens here, not the a-typical backpacker) have been really friendly and really good to me. It’s been a great 6 weeks here, despite the crazy last night I had.

We should have payed attention to the sign….

Kate, me, and James

My good friend Simon the Englishman

Add comment September 12th, 2002