Rudeness. The New Foreign Policy.

I’ve discovered a mistake in the stereotype of NYC. And although I was only there for a few days, I think I witnessed enough to say this next statement with a fair bit of accuracy, so here goes: It’s not NYC that is rude. It’s all the stinking foreign tourists that are rude. Yeah, I said it. Sue me.
The entire time “J” and I were in NYC we encountered several very nice New Yorkers and absolutely NO rude ones. However, also during this time we encountered enough rude tourists to justify closing our borders for good. I mean it people, it was sad. And yes, I’m sure a fair amount were American, we all know that Americans aren’t really the best at politeness from time to time, but the people that were obviously foreign and extremely rude, completely outweigh the number of Americans we encountered that could be “considered” rude. Let me say this next statement because in a country that lives and breathes political correctness to a fault, in a country that refuses to say anything no matter how true for fear of upsetting someone, and in a country that prefers to assume a point of view before actually reading or listening, I have to say this, you know, to make it clear. So here goes again: I’m not a racist. The fact that I encountered a lot of really rude people and the fact that they all happened to not speak English as a first language, doesn’t have anything to do with me “disliking” them. It’s just simply what happened. And I don’t like to change the truth just because it sounds better. You can say the sky is yellow and I’ll say it’s blue. I might offend you by saying that, it might upset you to hear that, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth. So there you have it. Let’s move on.

While in NYC it was funny to realize that so many of the people we encountered, whether it was on Times Square or just the Subway, were tourists. This was made funnier by the fact that it wasn’t even tourist season. Which shows you that just like the city that never sleeps, the tourism never sleeps either. Even more interesting than the aforementioned point was the fact that so many of them were not Americans. I guess in some ways this wasn’t surprising at all, but in many ways I still found myself a bit surprised. I heard more foreign languages spoken around me on Times Square then I ever heard English. Nothing wrong with that, it was just (as I mentioned) a surprise. I didn’t have a problem until everywhere I went I had to encounter someone being really rude. And then it dawned on me that each and every one of them were not from this country. Let’s list off a few of them: First of all there was the Russian couple that continually thought it was funny to cut in line at the Empire State Building. And if you’ve never been there, let me tell you, there are a lot of lines. You DO NOT cut at the Empire State building, this will get you killed. Apparently she thought the fact that she carried a Tod handbag made her God, I don’t know. Second, the Mexican lady at Liberty Island that thought she could jump in line to check out her forty-seven bracelets that she bought and then proceeded to want each bagged separately. I’m sorry, this is not Mexico, and we don’t need your money that badly, please wait in line. I promise you that the Statue of Liberty isn’t going anywhere; even the Terrorists didn’t want to hit it, so lets not panic. Third, the Asian gentleman (I use that word loosely) that cut in line at the Empire State Building while I was checking out. Excuse me? Notice a theme here? I’m beginning to think that only America has LINES. *sheesh* and believe me, these were not subtle cuts. These were blatant “I’m going to get in there no matter what” cuts. There were also the French people at Hard Rock Café that needed to ram me into displays at every given second…..wait a second…..why are the French even IN NYC?? Don’t they hate us or something? I digress. Point being, it got ridiculous.
Seriously, Americans may not be the nicest people in the world, trust me, I understand that. I am in no way gung-ho American. No wait, yes I am. I am. Because to deny what we have, to deny what we get, and the fact that on average I DO think we are nicer needs to be mentioned. There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you are and where you live. Because we didn’t get it handed to us on a silver platter. We fought for it, we died for it and we’ve earned it. If this means that other countries hate us? So be it. That won’t ever change. I certainly hope that if there comes a day again when we can travel out of the country and not be scared of being kidnapped, that we, as Americans, wont’ be as asinine as to cut in line or run into people or steal seats or any other number of things. Hopefully you WILL be courteous and polite. Hopefully you’ll realize that it just annoys people and embarrasses your country. And if your not, I hope someone in Germany, or France or Spain writes a really nasty blog about you so you know how ridiculous your being. Because we have a responsibility to hold people accountable for their actions. Whether you’re from here or there. Black or white. Smart or dumb. Male or Female.
And if that “offends” them, then tell them to grow up.