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Sept 8, 2003 Dear Canada, How are you doing? I’ve heard some interesting things about you in the last few weeks and I’d like to find out what you think of them. Why? Because I’m curious. I hear gay people can get married there. I hear you have universal health care. Crime doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem there as it is in the United States. And Canadians seem, well...a better class of people than Americans. I know a lot of you resent us right now. You’re upset about the United States’ involvement in Iraq. Americans have overtaken hockey. Hell, Wayne Gretzky was snapped up by American teams! I’d be upset too! And you think we’re arrogant and ignorant. Well, you’re right about that too. But I happen to be one of those Americans who think Canada totally rocks. As a kid I was fascinated by Canada. Any country that has hockey as its national pastime has to be neat. I was way into hockey long before it caught on down here. Canadians seem like a friendlier bunch of people. At least, that’s what it seemed like in “Bowling for Columbine.” Michael Moore even proved you don’t lock your doors! Of course, it WAS a movie, and you can’t believe everything you see. But Moore made Canada look like a friendly, happy, well-meaning, polite, clean, caring country that seemed to give a damn about its citizens. Tell me, is it true? I know utopia doesn’t exist. No person is perfect; the same goes with countries. Lots of people here in the states believe they live in the best country in the world. And if people don’t agree with them, they want them to get out! “Love it or leave it,” they say. Which means if you want to make improvements to the United States, you won’t have many people helping you because they think it’s perfectly fine the way it is. Even though we had a bunch of school shootings a few years ago, and little kids still continue to be abused, and there are homeless people (including some who served their country in wars) and companies who don’t manage their money properly and end up going under and taking their workers’ investments with them, and people who don’t have health insurance who can’t afford to pay for medicine or operations they might need and road rage and a bunch of other stuff that I haven’t mentioned. Oh sure, there are good things about the United States. We can pretty much say whatever we want and not get in trouble for it. We are free to drive all around the country without having to pass through checkpoints. We are free to quit our jobs and look for better ones. We can go to school if we want. We can drop out if we want. Ummm...we have the freedom to work two jobs if we want. Of course, our employers aren’t too happy about that. In the old days, they called it “moonlighting.” I don’t know what they call working two jobs nowadays. “Trying to make ends meet” might be one term. “Simple survival” might be another way of putting it. In order to work two jobs, we need understanding employers who will keep us on the same schedule from week to week so we can work the second job. Some of us are lucky enough to have them. We are also lucky enough to have the freedom to choose whatever doctor we want when we are sick. Well, only if they are included in the HMO directory. If we go to a “non-network health provider,” we have to pay for it ourselves. Lucky for me, I have no health insurance whatsoever! That means I can choose whatever doctor I want. Of course, I have to pay for it myself, but since I don’t have any money, that’s when I pull out my credit card. Do you know I saved 20 percent by paying for my MRI scan the same day I had it? Lucky for me they take Visa. So, with all the things I’ve heard about Canada in the last few weeks, I want to know: are you really a horrible country? Do you worry gay people getting married will make your country an immoral mess? What about drugs? I read there is some place in Canada (Vancouver, I think) that is going to be a place where people can “shoot up” in a safe setting. Aren’t drugs bad? Isn’t that what Nancy Reagan kept telling us? To “Just say no to drugs”? Is it true that the government provides health care services for its citizens? Americans think that’s ridiculous. People here say you guys don’t have the freedom of choosing what doctor you get when you do get sick. But since people here are pretty much forced to use the doctors that are included in their HMO or PPO, isn’t it the same thing? Well, the same thing except the government doesn’t pay for it. Oh! And that reminds me of another thing. Do you organize benefits for people who have a serious illness? You see quite a bit of that here. People will have hog roasts to raise money to help someone who has cancer. Sometimes they are able to raise as much as $5000! Too bad cancer treatment costs way more than that. But hey! Every little bit helps, right? Well, I gotta run. I hope you write back and tell me more about you and your people. If things get any worse in the United States, I just might move there! I read an article proposing that Canada, the United States and Mexico merge into one big country, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’d lose your identity! Plus, instead of the U.S. doing things like making instructions and McDonald’s menus available in Spanish, we’d have to offer them in French too! It would just mean one more language we don’t want to deal with because people who come to the U.S. should speak perfect English right off the bat like some of our ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Of course, some of those ancestors killed the natives already here who didn’t speak English, but we don’t like to talk about that very much. I think I’d make a good Canadian citizen. I think that health care for a nation’s citizens is very important, I know all the words to your national anthem, I already said how much I love hockey and the Barenaked Ladies are my favorite music group! I’m not a gun-toting maniac, and I’m fairly law-abiding. Plus, I know that Ottawa is the capital of Canada, not Toronto, which is the capital of the province of Ontario. I’m not an expert at the metric system, but I’m willing to learn! Hoping to hear from you soon! Love, Gloria ------------ About the author: Gloria Diaz is an opinionated citizen of Generation X (member since 1967) who occupies herself by dabbling in photography, writing and as a written communications processing specialist for the government. She has written for several diverse publications including Scram, Spleen, The Fort Wayne Free Press, and for the Huntington County TAB. Email Gloria Diaz: Scoop5767@aol.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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