Comments on America

EVENT: ELISABETH

To introduce myself - I am a 23 year old American who grew up in Michigan, went to high school in northern Idaho, and went to college in London and Florence. I've just returned and am now living in Chicago. This is the first time I have lived in a large American city.

***

So two days ago I 'got mugged' - a guy came up and wrestled me for my video camera until the thought crossed my brain that really, the camera wasn't worth a physical fight, and I let go and off he ran. I ran into the police quite incidentally about five minutes later and they set off to find him but really it's very unlikely he'll get caught. I was not scared at all - my inner calm never even quivered, oddly enough (or not). But boy, did it make me angry. Not an anger about my camera. An anger about this stupid country and this stupid city and the violences here and the desperations here and the discrepancies and the HUGE gaps between groups of people. The segregation.... And the... what's the word? Instead of a word, have a scenario I witness every time I go downtown:

Walking in pristine Downtown, huge beautiful skyscrapers and clean streets and paris-like shops. Everything is pristine, beautiful, shiny, clean, rich. There are very few 'beggars' in the sense that I have known them in England and Italy (people asking for money, sitting or standing). No. Instead of these, there are people literally lying on the ground, half on the street, or right across the sidewalk, unconscious. Everyone steps past them. I have seen this over and over and over. It's like, am I in the Twilight Zone? No, it's just an American City. There really isn't a difference. It's so goddamn unreal. The same goes for the neighborhood I live in. It's filthy rich, and surrounded by filthy poor. It's utterly deceptively happy-looking. Like a bomb painted with flowers. The same with downtown. It's sickening.
This country...

It's so un-free. It's... there's something truly Jekyll and Hyde about it. Something Europe lacks utterly. This kind of deception doesn't exist there, or at least not in the places I've lived.

In England there are complaints about the amount of money people have to pay in taxes in order to uphold the health system which guarantees free healthcare to everyone. Frankly folks, this is CIVILIZED. I'm willing to give half my paycheck if it goes towards that incredibly humane way of life. America, on the other hand... is (gasp! will I really dare to call it this?) just plain uncivilised.

I'm figuring out America. It's not pleasant.