Comments from Paris.

A friend of mine just returned from Paris. I asked him what was the general feeling there. Here is an abbreviated first response. Forgive the structure, but dude was worn out; he promised something more scholarly later.

I talked with a number of people at length, Muslim, Christian, French natives, tourists, etc., and found four common points... I thought the last one, by the way, was the most interesting:

- (As I've contended) No-one faulted the U.S. citizens for the 1st Bush regime. Who knew? But having re-elected him, we (as a nation) became complicit and forfeited the right to say our hands our washed clean of it all.

- They understand the country is split, although they do not begin to comprehend the division, not in terms of percentages, but in terms of the depth of the rift.

- They simply cannot fathom how religion is allowed to be played out so centrally on the political stage. They can't follow the hypocracy of our church/state separation lip service. That's one thing people misunderstand about the French. Their belief in separation of church and state makes ours (or what's left of it) look pathetic.

- They feel sorry for us, almost like we felt sorry for the people of Iraq under Suddham Hussein (sp). They do not view our current system of elections (or governance) with a great deal of reverance, and suspect great corruption that "hoodwinks" the American populace -- if not outright rigs the voting.

Granted, I speak French. But I was in Paris, a New York sized city known for New York style rudeness (it ain't the French, folks.. it's huge cities). I did not encounter a single slight, a single example of rudeness, or a single critical remark aimed at my country unless I had initiated discussions and voiced my views -- and even then they were even-tempered and constructive. In my experience, Americans who complain of how badly they were treated abroad were generally acting, as so many sadly do, as the "ugly" American, demanding immediate service (that may not be the cultural norm) and that others should immediately understand their needs in a foreign language. Yeah. Like so many caucasion or even U.S. born hispanics have bothered to learn Spanish.

There were a number of books in the stores about understanding America, Americans, etc., and there is a real desire to do so.

A final quote from a Parisienne of the bourgois on the U.S. elections, the U.S. situation in general, terrorism and the general state of things: "Malheureusement, les betisement c'est la plus grand plague du monde" Translating the meaning as correctly (i.e., not word-for-word) as possible: "Sadly, stupidity is the world's greatest curse"