-----Original Message-----

From: Dan Burke

Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 10:44 AM

To: Dan Burke

Subject: I think we're alright, you know?

Florence is full of small craft shops where artisans

do their work. When you walk down allies, you see men

and women chiseling wood, stretching cloth over

furniture, making jewelry. Being a craft person is a

respectable occupation here. There is value in being

an artist. It has a rich tradition here in Florence.

For most of my life I have wondered about American

culture, or the lack thereof. Of course I love

America, but let's address some gripes for the time

being. Just for fun.

I've wondered repeatedly about things like:

Why are Americans so... loud, annoying, stupid, self

centered, preoccupied, shallow, self absorbed, and

competitive? Why is everyone out for themselves? Why

is everyone ending their sentences with "SO," and "YOU

KNOW" so much these days. Why is everyone running so

fast to make money, make more money, to get a better

job, a better house, a better wife, a better self,

bigger tits, tighter abs, bigger lips, longer hair,

darker skin? Why do we eat so poorly? Why are we so

apathetic about politics and human rights? How can an

actor become a Governor without any prior political

history? How can a dip shit coke-head be elected

president, then convince us that war is good? Why do

we feel bigger is better? Why did we invent the

notorious Super Size? Are we not fat enough? What's

happening to the family? What's happening to our

communities? Why is everyone so insecure?

America is still young, relatively. For the most part,

we've done an amazing job on empire building. We may

have reached our peak already. Perhaps our summit wont

crest for thousands of years. Who's to say. Only time

will tell.

I think there's one answer that holds true for the

America of today. I believe this answer is the root

cause of all the symptoms I've outlined in question

form above. It's really quite simple; I've been able

to see it plainly after spending so much time abroad.

PART ONE: Basically, we have no roots to hold us down.

Like tumble weeds, we're swirling in the shallow winds

of today's America.

If you think about it, all of us came from somewhere

else within the last, say, 200 years. Very few of us

have kept our prior identities, the ones that anchored

us to our people, to our long histories, our lands.

Hell, forget our lineages, some of us have forgotten

our own brothers and sisters. Bob lives in California,

Sally's in Idaho, and Jakob is in Alaska for some

fucking reason. We're all torn apart.

The American experiment made it easy for us to forget

where we came from, forget who we were. My guess is

that when we don't know who we are, we feel insecure.

We feel something important is missing, and in reflex,

we try to find something to fill that need we know

exists deep inside

PART TWO: Capitalism is like gasoline that burns on

the fire of insecurity.

Now that we're Americans, we need to figure out what

that means. Relatively, we have no history to anchor

onto, so we look to each other, our communities, and

no one really has a good answer, everyone is running

too quickly. So like it or not, big corporations swoop

in and tries to provide these answers for us. Now, in

America, for the first time in history, we have a

culture defined by capitalism, not by heritage. This

has a monumental effect on the psyche of our people.

Imagine your culture changing out beneath you every

shopping season. Today you're Italian, wait, you're

Irish, now you're Polish. In this context, it sounds

fairly insane to me. Combine this dynamic with a

technological and informational revolution and WHAM!

Here we are. Quite a wild time to be from the USA

isn't it. Wild, crazy, and sometimes cool.

Can we blame capitalism? No. There are flavors of it

all over the world. I've see several old and new

examples of it in the past 6.5 weeks (only 15 years

old in the Check Rep.). But there's something

different about it in all these other places. The

people aren't so affected by the dynamics of

messaging. Why? They have something to hold onto;

tradition, history, foundation. In other words, there

are ROOTS grounding these other cultures to the earth.

At some point, we will have a few thousand years of

history for our children's children to hang onto. Part

of that will be defined by what we leave behind, our

example. So what the hell are you talking about Dan?

Quite simply, I'm hoping some of us will take

responsibility for what I feel is a pretty "out of

control" America. We can do this by acting as examples

for others. We can show respect for our families by

keeping them together, for our communities by getting

to know one another, for tradition by researching and

rediscovering our cultural heritages, and respecting

others; by turning off our TVs and talking to our

children, our neighbors; by learning limits, and

setting boundaries; by saying no to information

overload, and demands made by others for our important

time. By putting the media and corporation back in the

place where they belong, they are there to serve us,

not visa versa.

I guess all I'm trying to ask is where are your roots

America? And when we do find them, will we feel a

little better about who we are as people, as

Americans? I'm betting two hours at an Internet cafe

in Florence, Italy that we would.