Friendly Americans No More

Oh for heaven's sake, this is absolutely ridiculous. These nominally American border guards who pepper-sprayed a Canadian who asked them to "say please" before complying with their request to turn his car off during a search should have murmured "Please" and gone about their business. The eagerness of the U.S. "Homeland Security" border guards, TSA and police to emulate jackbooted brownshirts of the world's most unfortunate recent history is revolting to see.

It puzzles me as to why the borderistas would seem to prefer being like stalwarts of the Soviet gulag or Nazi Germany than friendly Americans. It stymies me, boggles the mind and is otherwise utterly inexplicable. What on earth, one wonders, is wrong with being a friendly American?

It oftens appears that the divide is not so much between right and left, East and West or Arab and American, but rather between the mannered and the unmannered, the civil and the churlish, the chivalrous and the impudent bully.

How very sad that the American character would stoop to this.

QUOTE He said he was questioned by a border officer who demanded he turn off his car and, when asked to make the request more politely, threatened to spray him with his pepper gun if he did not comply.
"I just felt I should stand my ground about it. I should not be treated like that. No matter what kind of position you are in, if you want respect you have to show respect," he said yesterday. "I asked him three times and when I didn't turn the car off, because he didn't say please, he pepper sprayed me.... It was terrible. For half an hour or so I couldn't see anything." UNQUOTE
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Welcome To The Rosemary Tree

I am hopeful of providing a little respite from the junk-food of politics, finance, doom & gloom, peak oil/climate change and celebrity hoohah.Here we strive for a rest in the shade, some cool water and a little civility, if not chivalry. This blog is dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick, Saint Deborah and the glorious Bridget of Kildare. I very much like the line about the ancient knight - "His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;"probably because my name Deborah means "the bee" in Hebrew, so I have always enjoyed references to them. It's also reminiscent of " beating swords into plough shares" a sentiment I also approve of.

Thank you for visiting the site, hope you return!

~ Pax Christi,

Deborah

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