by Lenn Gustus

Created on: July 13, 2008

I would suggest that one should take a tour across this country and see how many of it's citizens are geographically isolated. Does anyone think that the retired gentleman living on the shore of an idyllic Minnesota lake is really happy when his new neighbor from Chicago decides to build a two story garage for his kid's snow-mobiles and jet-skis at his vacation home? Does anyone believe that people are more accepting of the people and things they don't know than they are of those that they do? I understand that the question is about the nation as a whole but should that make it different from the individuals that live in it?

The idea that the U.S. is the proverbial melting pot of the world is often offered as proof of our commitment to justice and tolerance because it's true. The American experience clearly shows that people of all cultures can live together and create a nation unlike any the world has ever known, and the rest of the world appreciates that ideal of freedom that we as a nation try to protect and preserve.
We have, however, made it undeniably clear that if you threaten us in any meaningful way from outside our borders, we will certainly make you pay for it. Is there any nation on earth more dangerous than the U.S.? Our record speaks for itself. And whatever culture is responsible for the threat will not just be subject to intolerance, but downright enmity and often hostility.
So the answer is yes, of course our geographic isolation has something to do with it. But the real core issues are basic and very human ones, and to try to assess our geographic isolation relative to how it alone makes us more or less tolerant is difficult if not impossible.
One thing must be said though.It was the land which shaped our culture as much as anything. America has an attitude born of relentless optimism and a confidence bordering on arrogance.These attributes spawned a society based on rugged individualism that fulfilled their manifest destiny to conquer and develop the land from coast to coast.America retains that romantic vision of itself today
Rudyard Kipling once noted

The Chinaman waylays his adversary, and methodically chops him to pieces with his hatchet. Then the press roars about the brutal assault of the pagan.
The Italian reconstructs his friend with a long knife. The press complains of the waywardness of the alien.
The Irishman and the native Californian in their hours of dicontent use the revolver, not once, but six times. The press records the fact, and asks in the next column whether the world can parallel the progress of San Francisco.

If Kipling were alive today I don't think he'd think much differently. The world's view of America is not America's vision of itself.It wasn't one hundred years ago,when this was written, and it isn't today. The land has always shaped our culture and it will continue to do so as serious environmental problems abound. Tolerant or not,I'm pretty sure we'll be looking for some "uniquely American" solutions.

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