There is something to be said about approaching the world thinking (or believing) that most people are idiots.
So, when some (a lot of ) people called the Czech Embassy after the Boston marathon bombings, to threaten Czechs, the Slavs, a famous tourist destination with the beer we (Americans) import and gulp down, I, as one of the people who goes through life assuming most people are idiots,was not so surprised. Or disappointed. Or embarrassed. But I was. All three.
(Imagine poor people had to write a statement on their Web site. We're Czech Republic, not Chechnya, a former Soviet Union Republic. Sigh. That's your proof there's more than one belligerent idiot out there. Scary.)
This idiot-ism, (I know, most of you have moved on, but I can't) immediately transported me to 2004, when I immigrated to the United States, and wasn't an American I am now, and when asked around, I would say I was from Serbia, and got a blank stare, then when elaborated with "Former Yugoslavia," I was finally able to see that little light of recognition in their eyes. Sometimes.
Then the questions: "Is it very cold out there? " (Siberia)
"Is that in Germany?"
"Is that in Australia?"
I kid you not!
I'll grant you, I don't know everything either. But I do not ask stupid questions if I don't know. I shut up, listen, go home and google. And I certainly don't call an Embassy or write e-mails to threaten people based on my (not my, but theirs) ignorance and inability to distinguish between countries and nations. Hell, even continents! Totally different cultures!
My advice? Travel a little! Read a book! Get out a bit out of your football/baseball/basketball/anyball watching/ domestic-vacationing frame of mind.
Or go back to school. Learn geography. Learn another language.
Stop blaming the wrong country for something two monsters did.
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