Quote:
Originally Posted by UofMfan
otherwise you would have to call yourself a United States of America, right?
|
Right. Because folks from Mexico refer to themselves as "United Mexican States Citizens" (or more likely Estados Unidos Mexicanos, but you get my drift)
And people from Colombia? as "
Republican of Colombia"
And how about those from Brazil? as "Federative
Republicans of Brazil"
And those from Germany? "Federal
Republican of Germany"
And how about those zany occupants of France? "French
Republicans"
And let's not forget the good people of "The People's Republic of China" (Yeah... what would that be? "A Person of the Republic of China" - rolls right off the tongue)
Again, I realize I didn't pay a lot of attention in school (I'm sure it'll come as a shock to you all that I thought I knew it all as a teenager too), but I do believe the US(ofA) was recognized as a country before any other foreign colony on the North or South American continents. And yes, the founding fathers decreed that their newly established nation would be called "The United States of America". While I wasn't there, and do not know if their intent was to crowd out the ability for any other person living on the continents to feel comfy calling themselves an American - I some how doubt it.
Why are those of you up in arms about this flap not screaming bloody murder about the audacity of the Australians? Well the poor sorry sods in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia must really hate life. Maybe it's not an issue any longer because the continental naming convention is seen as evolving from the Australian Continent to Oceania in some circles.
And lest us not forget the continent Africa and the nation of South Africa or is that not so important nor confusing?
This hub bub over what others call us? Lots of hot air. I don't know anyone from Germany, France, Spain, Italy or Portugal who calls themselves a European. They, seemingly more so to me, are far too nationalistic to be grouped with other nations under such an umbrella term as "European". Those from *outside* Europe? Yep, you bet! Although mostly I hear this in terms of descriptors "Oh, he's so European looking" sort of thing. The individuals from those European nation generally refer to themselves as "German", "French", "Spanish", "Italian" or "Portuguese". You'll note that each of these labels are formed off the unique identifier of their proper national name. So the call to arms to use another label for ourselves (USAian - yeah, I want to hear you call yourself that) seems rather silly. Should there not, instead, be a call to change the name of the nation? Or maybe the continent?
One *really* could argue that we're much more brash and insensitive to say that we're "from the States" or "from the US" as though it's the only organization of states in the world when clearly the United Mexican States and the Federated States of Micronesia both exist.
And I agree. Our bad rap has much more to do with our politics and general poor manners (not that self absorption isn't chief amongst our poor manners) over the last 40 years than it does with what the Founding Fathers so blithely determined we would wind up calling ourselves over the next many millenia.
/soapbox of crankiness