Yesterday for Independence Day, July 4th, we went to a celebration with the mayor of Toulouse. This party with drinks and lite food was arranged by Americans in Toulouse and Association France États Unis Midi Pyrenees. We were invited by Democrats Abroad and we thought they were part of the arranging, but it was clear they were not. It was located in a grand hall in the Place du Capitole. The room was great but the event was definitely not my cup of tea. I heard too many “God Bless America’s” for my taste, saw too many flags a waving, and felt like I had little in common with these people other than we were Americans. In general I look for people as friends who are smart, interesting, funny, well traveled, a little irreverent, independent thinkers, kind, and being an American can only add to a friendship, not be the basis for it. Here is a picture in support of Obama on the Place du Capitole, I felt bad after, but I had to decline holding the American flag, I am a little embarrassed to have been standing in front of it. I mean on Place du Capitole here we were, a bunch of Americans, waving flags, I hope no one I know saw me.
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Maybe I should be glad that I missed the flag waving!
It wasn’t like they wanted to do laps with the flag waving in the wind, but we were asked if we wanted to hold the flag for the photos. That is something I never want to do. Of course they wouldn’t know but maybe on my part it is a realization that we don’t know that many people here well who would know better than to ask such a question.
Here is the story in Digg, there is an interesting comment from an acquaintance in Portugal.
http://digg.com/travel_places/July_4th_in_Toulouse_France
I completely understand your point, and would have felt the same.
I guess as we try to make more friends I’ll have to deal with this more but I don’t want to pretend to be someone I am not. It’s strange, being gay, no problem, being skeptical of America, maybe a problem.
how very un-american….
@Gil, if you had said more maybe I’d know if this was tongue in cheek or serious, oh well. If not wanting to hold a flag, it would be the same for any country’s flag BTW, makes me un-american, then that’s me, UN-AMERICAN. Patriotism is too close to nationalism for me. BTW#2, one of the reasons I left the US was because it was becoming a bit too embarrassing to say I am an American, so the charge of being un-american really doesn’t strike fear in my heart.
LOL, I can see you standing there behind the others, Owen.
Now seriously, I enjoy the way you wrote it and how you felt in that moment. I don´t feel like you´re unpatriotic after this, instead now I´m sure you´re a great and intelligent person who value intelligence and true friendship
My husband is a 71 year old Frenchman who has lived in the USA since 12/17/87. One of the things that never ceases to amaze him is the number of churches in the US and the ubiquity of American flags–they’re everywhere!
Needless to say, I won’t have one draped in front of my little house in central France. I suppose that context is everything and, depending upon why a given individual went to France to begin with, there might be a variety of reasons that an American in France would want to wave an American flag. I can’t, however, for the life of me, imagine why. You won’t catch me doing it.
It would be particularly galling to me to leave my country of birth, precisely to experience an expanded worldview, and find myself having mental or voiced conversations about whether I should or should not wave a US flag. Gag me with a phonebook or kill me now, whichever you prefer!
Stick to your guns and don’t be wavin’ no flags just to fit in. Moving to France was about not fitting in, so keep it up!!! “Quels cons!”, as they say in France and at my house.
Amitiés,
Thanks for your comment, it made my day, hell week!
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