On Wednesday evenings, I head over to the University of Oslo for a Christian Union (CU) meeting. CU is a lot like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a group I was part of in college. My first week there, students from eleven countries attended the meeting (including another American from Montana).
This past Wednesday, an Iranian man talked to us about some of his friends and family. He read in the newspaper that one of his friends was being accused of terrorism. As he was talking about this, he kept looking directly at me, completely ignoring the other twenty some-odd people in the room. I tend to think I'm a good listener, so maybe he was just appreciating my attention. But part of me wonders if he was talking to me because I was clearly an American and his friend was arrested by Americans. After the meeting, one of the leaders apologized for it, as she'd noticed it too and she didn't want me to be bothered by it.
I think people in the US often have different opinions of our political leaders than the rest of the world because we see them from a different perspective. Most Americans are more concerned about domestic policy issues (taxes, health care, and education, to name a view), while the rest of the world cares about a president's international policy. It's perfectly reasonable on both group's account, as each is more concerned about policy that affects them most.
Most Americans are more nationally-minded, anyway. I, for instance, thought until very recently that Switzerland was part of Scandinavia. And I have a hard time remembering where all fifty states are, let alone countries on other continents. On the flip-side, very few Norwegians know where my home state is. It goes both ways.
Being a representative of the US (which I instantly become since I'm American) can be such a hard thing because the country is so large and the people so diverse. Some foreigners expect me to understand everything and sometimes I want it to be enough just to say, I know the US might look like some international bully, but it's my home and I like it there.
One of the CU leaders grew up in Jerusalem. She went to Bethlehem College and regularly dealt with being shot at or almost arrested. It's not something I can even come to close to beginning to understand, but for her, it's home. Maybe that's what being American is: you can't understand it unless you've grown up there. Whatever the case, it's my home and I like it there.
