I'll tell more about the Al Gore event in Hay in a minute, but for now I want to publicly chastise the man sitting behind me.
He was British, and I overheard him say that he liked Al Gore because he was "so articulate, for an American." This was because, he told his wife (who I never heard say a word), that Al Gore traveled a lot, whereas most senators didn't even have passports. (Now, I know one senator has bragged about not having a passport, but the others must surely be using passports when they travel to their Abramoff boondoggles.)
It's true that Americans don't travel as much as their British cousins. Brits are constantly catching EasyJet flights to the Canary Islands, Spain, Mallorca, or else Majorca, Spain, and generally anywhere with sun and a beach, like Spain (where you can get a full English breakfast just about anywhere). My neighbors have a house in Spain, where they spend their summers, but as far as I can tell it hasn't improved either their English or their Spanish.
I guess all that sun does wonders for the articulation. Surprising, then, that my fellow New Mexicans are lumped into the inarticulate American masses by the bigot sitting behind me.
What I wanted to tell this man was that most Americans, a) can't afford to travel abroad. A ticket to Europe costs far more than EasyJet fare to Barcelona. Most Americans don't have the disposable incomes that the average Europeans does, and what little they do have goes to save for a medical emergency, not for inflated London hotel prices. And b) most Americans don't take days off for something like travel. We don't have bank holidays, or even in most cases more than two weeks vacation (and many Americans spend even that at work). British children—and often their parents—get long breaks every season: the last spring break was 19 days. I know of very few American professionals (who are the only ones who can afford overseas flights) who would want to spend 19 days away from their jobs, even if their Scrooge bosses offered it to them. Our ancestors, remember, were Puritans who left England and subsequently invented the work ethic.
And further, if we do wish to travel, there are lots of places in the Americas where we can travel without a passport. Six Flags, despite coming under the province of six nations, doesn't require a passport; neither does Juarez. So there are lots of well-traveled, well-read Americans who—horrors!—don't have a passport.
I took careful note of this man's further discourse, none of which was particularly articulate, despite his tan. Of course, the glare I gave him after his statement might have been enough to stifle any inclinations toward articulation he may have possessed. (I barely refrained from smacking him across the brow. My husband hates it when I break into fisticuffs with the locals.)
I would say something about how all British people are bigots, but I refuse to judge a whole nation of people based on a sample of one. I'm particular like that.
I would go on, but I'm not feeling very articulate right now. Maybe I should go lie in the sun a bit.
