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Why? Canadians are generally held in higher regard than U.S. citizens overseas. Now, we take you back to the pretty-much-government-wide U.S. superiority complex, everyone...
------------------ Vreenak: "The man who started the war with the Dominion... Somehow I thought you'd be taller." (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")
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Frank: there are a number of fairly deep differences. For example the number one issue in the recent Ontario election was preserving universal medicare. Now in the US there is still no medicare and many people seem not to want it. There are other examples, we have twice been ruled by leaders who were at one point communists, and blacklisted by the CIA. We have never lost a war, and we sacrificed more for longer during both world wars, but that is rarely mentioned.
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Simon: Canada may have sacrificed longer in the World War's, because that's of their own choosing. But more? More what? Materials, supplies, or people? The US built the more war machines for both wars. We may not have sent more supplies in WWI, but in WWII, we gave the British Lend-Lease supplies. Weapons, ships, food, oil, everything needed to fight a war. And sacrifices, let me name a few...The Phillipines, Guadalcanal, Tinian, Okinawa, Saipan, those are some pretty damn big sacrafices there. Not to mention the lives wasted in WWI trench warfare, and gas attacks.
------------------ "Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us" -Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV
[This message was edited by Warped1701 on June 03, 1999.]
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There are few things more dangerous than fundamentalism. That includes any form of unquestioning devotion, such as nationalism. But we wouldn't want people to have to be independant entities, would we? Better to tie our self-image to the nearest ethnic group/political party/sports team.
------------------ "Near the door! They leave reality inside!"
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Sol: Perhaps you were just talking about people in general. Personally, I don't time my self-image to any ethnic group/political party/sports team. I'm a person, just like everyone else, be it black, white, brown, yellow, blue, or otherwise. Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Atheist, it makes no difference to me. I agree with some, but not all, the ideas of both US political parties. When I vote, I vote for the candidate that I feel will best perform the job. As for sports, I don't really care for sports much. I'll watch them sometimes, but I have no team that I'm devoted to.
Forgive me for caring about my country. I'm damn glad to be an American, and always have been. Yes, we can be overly proud and arrogant people, but every country has people like that. I love my country, but even so, that doesn't mean I like everything about it. Our political system, it would work if we got rid of the current politicians and started from scratch with decent, honest people. The justice system...there really isn't one. There's alot of talk about being 'tough on crime' but that's all it is, talk.
I don't attach labels to myself, or others, because those labels divide us as people. I may not like the US's or other nations policies concerning one thing or another, but we are all human nonetheless. At least, that's the way I see it.
------------------ "Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us" -Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV
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What Simon meant is that Canada sacrificed more people per capita in both world wars than the United States.
As for medicare, its not so much that the US does not have national medicare, its that they don't have universal and equal access to a one-tier medicare system.
There is also the minor difference in that our leaders don't get into sex scandals as much, heh
------------------ If a tree falls on a mime in the forest...does anyone care?
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We don't have government-funded universal health care, but we do have de-facto universal health care. I have yet to hear of a person denied routine medical treatment because they would not be able to pay. Our universal health-care system is not directed by the government nor is it administered by government employees. Rather, it is directed by compassion and administered by caring people.
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Does it really matter about people per capita? It doesn't matter how many people live in a square kilometer of a particular nation that died for their country. What matters is that those people gave their lives for their country, and what they believe in.
Personally, I'm in favor of a one-tier medical system. The long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term losses. But since this is the US, things will never change as long as lobbyists still exist. Even so, as Baloo said, the doctors and nurses who want to help people. You might be surprised, but some doctors get paid rather meager salaries for all the torture that had to go through to get that MD. Their love for helping those in need may possibly make them some of the most heart-felt of us all.
------------------ "Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us" -Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV
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