A
Amras
Guest
I was born in Luxembourg, a small prosperous country in the middle of Europe, the GDP per capita is extremely high, higher than in the US itself. I am half german half luxembourgish and I wouldn't be astonished if 1 out of 2 americans couldn't locate my country on a map. Yet, the US has shaped the fate of my country.
During WWII, Nazigermany was convinced that we were just a german province. If the US had not decided to fight the Naziterror among their allies, I would have either grown up in a nazi or stalinistic country, given the youth that I had, I will have to thank you for that.
My grandfather lived in the north of the country. When I was a child, we always drove past the Patton monument to get to my grandfathers house. I was in 4th grade, that was in 1988, when a group of american veterans came to visit the place where they fought during World War II. We were assigned to paint a picture for them, I decided to paint a few tanks, which had american flags on their roof. I didn't speak English at that time, but I wrote two lines: "Pattons tanks, tank you". One american veteran was very touched by my image and took it back to the US. A few weeks later I got a letter with a few photos, I could see what the man looked like in his youth and the shape of his tank. I still have them somewhere, those aren't things that I would throw away.
It took a few years till I realized what kind of an impression my image had to make on a 70 year old man.
Street names in Luxembourg are usually french, we speak both french and german, the street next to mine was/is called "Rue J.F.Kennedy". There is an Eisenhower boulevard in the capital and there is an american cemetery with nameless white crosses outside of it. There are a lot of those crosses, but even as a child I realized what they meant. At that period, psychological tests were done at my ground school, during one test, we had to paint pictures again, I was quite bored, so I imagined a place where I wanted to go. I drew skyscrapers, I wanted to draw New York, those huge buildings that I had seen on TV. It took another 9 years till I could visit that place. I was amazed, there is so much life in that city, I've seen New York by night from the Empire State Building and during the day from the top of the WTC. In 1999, I spend two more great weeks in your country.
The other country where I really feel at home is Germany, being the fiercest enemy that the US has fought so far, it is interesting to see how the US dealed with the vanquished, while the eastern part of the country fell under the control of Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain divided Europe, the US gave the western part of the country it's dignity back. The efforts to starve West Berlin out were in vain, transporters flew from West Germany to Berlin, there was even one crazy american officer, which had this mad idea to drop chocolate attached to little parachutes over berlin. His superior identified his crazyness but let him proceed with his plan and it was huge success. The chocolate and more important the food in genereal that was transported to Berlin was the root for german-american friendship.
The US finally lost it's innocence during the cold war, where both sides did things that are morally questionable. Given it's power, the troubles of the world have become part of americas reality. If I look at america today. I see 280m individuals which give america many different faces, I admire a few, I like a lot , I find some aspects mysterious and some are not so beautiful.
The image of the US is deteriorating a bit, some may wonder why I post this. Americans heard a lot of reasons why other people don't like you anymore, I just wanted to share my personal life experience concerning the US. I lost some faith in americas political class (dems and reps), however I will not lose my faith in america that easily.
During WWII, Nazigermany was convinced that we were just a german province. If the US had not decided to fight the Naziterror among their allies, I would have either grown up in a nazi or stalinistic country, given the youth that I had, I will have to thank you for that.
My grandfather lived in the north of the country. When I was a child, we always drove past the Patton monument to get to my grandfathers house. I was in 4th grade, that was in 1988, when a group of american veterans came to visit the place where they fought during World War II. We were assigned to paint a picture for them, I decided to paint a few tanks, which had american flags on their roof. I didn't speak English at that time, but I wrote two lines: "Pattons tanks, tank you". One american veteran was very touched by my image and took it back to the US. A few weeks later I got a letter with a few photos, I could see what the man looked like in his youth and the shape of his tank. I still have them somewhere, those aren't things that I would throw away.
It took a few years till I realized what kind of an impression my image had to make on a 70 year old man.
Street names in Luxembourg are usually french, we speak both french and german, the street next to mine was/is called "Rue J.F.Kennedy". There is an Eisenhower boulevard in the capital and there is an american cemetery with nameless white crosses outside of it. There are a lot of those crosses, but even as a child I realized what they meant. At that period, psychological tests were done at my ground school, during one test, we had to paint pictures again, I was quite bored, so I imagined a place where I wanted to go. I drew skyscrapers, I wanted to draw New York, those huge buildings that I had seen on TV. It took another 9 years till I could visit that place. I was amazed, there is so much life in that city, I've seen New York by night from the Empire State Building and during the day from the top of the WTC. In 1999, I spend two more great weeks in your country.
The other country where I really feel at home is Germany, being the fiercest enemy that the US has fought so far, it is interesting to see how the US dealed with the vanquished, while the eastern part of the country fell under the control of Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain divided Europe, the US gave the western part of the country it's dignity back. The efforts to starve West Berlin out were in vain, transporters flew from West Germany to Berlin, there was even one crazy american officer, which had this mad idea to drop chocolate attached to little parachutes over berlin. His superior identified his crazyness but let him proceed with his plan and it was huge success. The chocolate and more important the food in genereal that was transported to Berlin was the root for german-american friendship.
The US finally lost it's innocence during the cold war, where both sides did things that are morally questionable. Given it's power, the troubles of the world have become part of americas reality. If I look at america today. I see 280m individuals which give america many different faces, I admire a few, I like a lot , I find some aspects mysterious and some are not so beautiful.
The image of the US is deteriorating a bit, some may wonder why I post this. Americans heard a lot of reasons why other people don't like you anymore, I just wanted to share my personal life experience concerning the US. I lost some faith in americas political class (dems and reps), however I will not lose my faith in america that easily.
