You are all different.

I don't want you to follow me.

I interviewed today Julie Simone.

http://lukeisback.com/bloglukeisback/?p=1034

Julie spent 1980-1984 in Germany (from kindergarten to fourth grade) before coming home to Washington D.C. "grudgingly."

"I don’t really like this country. If I had my way, I would go back to Europe. It’s a much simpler way of life. I didn’t know about such things as racism until I moved here. I lived in a farming village. I went to the butcher, the baker, and you could walk there."

Luke: "What do you love and hate about America?"

Julie: "I hate the hypocrisy."

"It’s supposed to be so democratic, which I don’t buy. The Religious Right is trying to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do, meanwhile they have mistresses and dominatrixes…. People should be allowed to make their own decisions. Overseas, they teach people to think for themselves while here they teach people to follow like sheep. Thinking for yourself is strongly discouraged here."

"The educational system here. There are different standards depending on where you live. Why is it ok for people in the South and Mid-West to be stupid? It seems like the system is intentionally keeping certain segments of the population down."

Julie loves the "freedom" in Europe. "It’s just so beautiful there."

"I lived there as a child. I’ve been there as an adult but I haven’t lived there. Other than Checkpoint Charlie which I visited when it was still up, it just seemed more relaxed. Here people live to work and there people work to live."

[Afterwards, Julie praises by email "the lack of homeless in Europe, centralized health care, and lower crime rates (depending on where you are, of course)."]

Luke: "Why do you choose to live here?"

Julie: "I live here for work. Unless I find some European to marry, I’m stuck here."

Simone has lived in Los Angeles since 2003. "The people here are passive-aggressive. I’m from the East Coast where people say what they think."

As a Jew, I must agree with Julie and wish that America were more like that non-racist peace-loving cultured Germany.