So, we’re almost at the year and a half mark. There have been times when I’m really really mad about what is happening. And there have been times, maybe even an entire week here or there, when I forgot that Trump was president. There were weeks when I emailed senators every day and then months […]
Category: U.S. culture
Creating a second class citizen
I don’t really know where to start with this one. I guess with Kalief Browder who spent three years on Rikers Island, an infamous New York City prison, for nothing. I mean, really, for nothing. Kalief was accused at the age of sixteen of stealing a man’s backpack. He said he was not guilty and he […]
Ladies, can we get it together please?
In 1919 the U.S. Congress passed an amendment that doubled the number of people allowed to vote. That’s pretty bold when you think about it: half of the population, previously disenfranchised, showing up to vote. Women were suddenly a political force to be reckoned with. Many predicted that the women’s vote would change politics, drawing renewed […]
Freedom
At 3am on Wednesday morning when I was going on five hours of sleep and had just learned that Trump would be our next president, my mind went to some pretty dark places. Economic collapse, deterioration of foreign relations, a wall that won’t let people in, people so desperate to get out that Mexico won’t […]
Imagined community: a plea
An imagined community (a concept from Benedict Anderson’s 1983 book of the same name) is a community so large that it is impossible for members of this community to ever know or meet all of its other members. Since interpersonal connection cannot provide a basis for this kind of community it relies on other foundations […]
I am a hypocrite
Combine this post along with I am a mean person and I might be about to lose a lot of friends. On the other hand not many people actually read this blog. I have 127 followers but my stats show that not all of those people actually READ my posts. Usually about 40-50 people read […]
I went to Macy’s and took some selfies… I mean elfies
So I decided to do it old school when it came to Christmas presents this year. And by that, I mean I went to visit Santa. Not just any Santa, Santa at Macy’s on 34th Street in New York City. The streets ticked by slowly as I made my way there. 14th, 23rd, 29th. And […]
This isn’t culture shock… America is just weird
Guess where I am? Not in Madrid. Not even in Europe. I’m home, in Kansas. (Just for a few weeks. I’ll be heading back to Spain next week.) And everyday since I’ve been back I’ve asked myself: am I the weird one? Or is it the U.S. (more specifically Kansas)? Well, today was a point […]
Anne Foster 