I’ve had the great fortune to visit and live among other peoples in their countries (primarily the Baltics, Russia proper and Belorus) many years ago (first when Eesti still used the ruble, and then later again when she used those beautiful Eesti Kroon), when the people of those countries had much to tell me about their lives and cultures. I then had to return to the states, where knowing these things was frowned upon heavily, because they weren’t US-centric stories.

I’ve lived outside US borders just perhaps long enough to be able to disdain US exceptionalism, and understand that its head hasn’t been cowed enough yet for its population to understand humility relative to the much older and wiser world.

It’s very sad that I have to live to see it, especially with Canada and Mexico as our neighbors, but it seemed inevitable decades ago, so I’ll watch grimly as the country I was born in is made to fucking reckon… if it ever even learns to understand that fact.