There are always a few numbskulls who harass me with poorly constructed, grammatically insulting rants about the fact that I have chosen to live overseas.
They always say something like . . .
“What kind of American are you? YOU LIVE IN JAPAN!”
The answer that comes immediately to mind is . . .
“I’m the kind of American who lives in Japan.”
I spent six decades growing up, living and working in America.
I have an American passport, therefore I’m an American citizen.
I pay taxes to the American government. Still! And by the way, America is the only country that DOUBLE TAXES their citizens who live overseas. I pay taxes to Japan and I pay taxes to America. Unheard of in the rest of the civilized world.
And frankly I have no problem with the half of my taxes that go toward schools, education, building roads and bridges (which I no longer use), helping those who have fallen on hard times __ e. g. unemployment benefits, school lunch programs, Head Start, SNAP, heating assistance subsidies __ and promoting R&D addressing health and environmental issues.
But I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with the other half of the money they collect from me, which I have no say in. You know, the half of the federal budget that goes for the war machine we are building to take over the world, the money wasted on military misadventures, toppling democratically elected foreign governments, drone murdering of innocent civilians, spying on everyone with a pulse, wreaking havoc across the planet and creating far more enemies than we kill, sending our best young people into battle to protect the interests of already rich corporations. Yes, I do have a problem with paying those taxes. We all should.
But getting back to the xenophobic super-patriots . . .
Maybe these yokels are questioning my red-white-and-blue pedigree. Maybe they think somehow my all-American blood has become polluted and diluted because I live in Japan and have a Japanese wife.
One variation of the attack is particularly amusing.
“Well, Mr. Hotshot Expat, do you vote?”
This is probably coming from someone who doesn’t. But here’s the skinny on that one.
Though I think our electoral system is corrupt, that at least at this point our politicians are owned lock-stock-and-barrel by a tiny vainglorious and filthy rich elite, that our two-party system is a joke and both Democrats and Republicans unwillingly or maybe willingly are puppets to Wall Street banks and transnational corporations, that without serious immediate changes, democracy is effectively dead in America . . .
Though self-appointed, arrogant and misguided stewards of our electoral process have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters of color who they have deemed unworthy of the constitutional right to have a voice in our political system, though these exact same anti-democratic partisan bullies have hacked up any prospect of proper representation through gerrymandering and consigned voting to the irrelevancy of a video game via rigged voting machines . . .
For those rubes that have never left Cottonwad County and can’t find China on a map, one of the marvels of these amazing modern times is that you can visit the Great Wall of China in the morning and vote in an American election in the afternoon. You can have breakfast at a cafe in Paris or Amsterdam or even Tokyo on your way to dropping off an election form at a foreign post office. It’s called an absentee ballot. So the answer is . . .
Yes! I vote!
Absentee Democracy
They always say something like . . .
“What kind of American are you? YOU LIVE IN JAPAN!”
The answer that comes immediately to mind is . . .
“I’m the kind of American who lives in Japan.”
I spent six decades growing up, living and working in America.
I have an American passport, therefore I’m an American citizen.
I pay taxes to the American government. Still! And by the way, America is the only country that DOUBLE TAXES their citizens who live overseas. I pay taxes to Japan and I pay taxes to America. Unheard of in the rest of the civilized world.
And frankly I have no problem with the half of my taxes that go toward schools, education, building roads and bridges (which I no longer use), helping those who have fallen on hard times __ e. g. unemployment benefits, school lunch programs, Head Start, SNAP, heating assistance subsidies __ and promoting R&D addressing health and environmental issues.
But I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with the other half of the money they collect from me, which I have no say in. You know, the half of the federal budget that goes for the war machine we are building to take over the world, the money wasted on military misadventures, toppling democratically elected foreign governments, drone murdering of innocent civilians, spying on everyone with a pulse, wreaking havoc across the planet and creating far more enemies than we kill, sending our best young people into battle to protect the interests of already rich corporations. Yes, I do have a problem with paying those taxes. We all should.
But getting back to the xenophobic super-patriots . . .
Maybe these yokels are questioning my red-white-and-blue pedigree. Maybe they think somehow my all-American blood has become polluted and diluted because I live in Japan and have a Japanese wife.
One variation of the attack is particularly amusing.
“Well, Mr. Hotshot Expat, do you vote?”
This is probably coming from someone who doesn’t. But here’s the skinny on that one.
Though I think our electoral system is corrupt, that at least at this point our politicians are owned lock-stock-and-barrel by a tiny vainglorious and filthy rich elite, that our two-party system is a joke and both Democrats and Republicans unwillingly or maybe willingly are puppets to Wall Street banks and transnational corporations, that without serious immediate changes, democracy is effectively dead in America . . .
Though self-appointed, arrogant and misguided stewards of our electoral process have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters of color who they have deemed unworthy of the constitutional right to have a voice in our political system, though these exact same anti-democratic partisan bullies have hacked up any prospect of proper representation through gerrymandering and consigned voting to the irrelevancy of a video game via rigged voting machines . . .
For those rubes that have never left Cottonwad County and can’t find China on a map, one of the marvels of these amazing modern times is that you can visit the Great Wall of China in the morning and vote in an American election in the afternoon. You can have breakfast at a cafe in Paris or Amsterdam or even Tokyo on your way to dropping off an election form at a foreign post office. It’s called an absentee ballot. So the answer is . . .
Yes! I vote!