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 arepuppets 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
processhave 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!
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
