Thursday, February 05, 2009

red cars are everywhere...

once you buy a red car, red cars are everywhere. you know this phenomenon.

i met someone from Canada last year and suddenly Canada had taken over. i couldn't get to work in the morning without Canada showing up on a billboard, in a news update, in a gossip rant on a comedian, from where else? every six months or so, i sit down and watch a sitcom. take a wild guess what the story line was about on a perfectly random night?

i realized very quickly just how little i knew about Canada, which is utterly ridiculous and unacceptable. for pete's sake, i knew more about Mexico, and frankly, that just baffled me. so, i started paying attention.

one thing i've learned that bothers me even more than my own ignorance is "our" general ignorance and disrespect for the countries that border us. my latest grimace occurred tonight. i was on my way home listening to the hockey game and they cut back from a commercial just in time for the last line of the Canadian national anthem before the American national anthem. that felt unbelievably rude.

why is it that we cannot seem to treat our neighbors with respect? from our cube neighbors, to our upstairs neighbors, to our world neighbors?

it seems to me that the least we could do is skip a commercial for an suv and play the whole Canadian anthem before the game. you know, it is actually a beautiful song.

but, that's just me, and i see one hell of a lot of red cars around.

and just in case you don't know it... i happen to like this clip.

1 comment:

M Easter said...

Thanks for this post: your thoughtfulness transcends international boundaries and national identity. Similarly, I get pissed during Olympic coverage when they don't show the national anthems of other countries.

To be fair, Canadians think they know the US but the stereotypes are not fair or realistic. We both could stand to learn from the other, no doubt.

Btw, this clip is wonderful! I remember seeing it in 2007, and thinking how awesome it was.