Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(December 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Readers
letters (Part One) - (With reference to the American
Presidential election):
Sean writes from the UK:
 I read you features on the website and
have to agree with your observation and remarks and
really do think that people worldwide were amazed
that Bush could be voted back in. One comment made
me laugh - When asked by a reporter why the States
on the East and West coasts of America voted for
Kerry and all those in the centre of the country
voted for Bush one woman answered, "Because
those people on the coast get out more". I think
that this is the real crux of the matter as the people
of the mid-west states are so insular. As for the continuing
rise of the fundamental religious right in the mid-west
states - it frightens me, really frightens me.
 We
still hear lots of news and lots of criticism about the
United States Presidential elections here in the United
Kingdom and the media has a field day making fun of President
Bush. I watched several clips of him on British TV and
it is very hard not to laugh at some of the things that
he says. It isn’t that he says so many ridiculous
things it’s the way that he makes up words. These
bizarre attempts by not only your President but many
of your newscasters to reshape the English language intrigues
me. I recently heard an American use the word 'religiosity'
and had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Its bad
enough that slang words creep into 'respectable' language
without serious minded people making up words.
 Being an historian, I spend much time looking backwards
and concentrating upon past events and I find myself
getting a strange impression as to the future of the
world we currently live in. One of my major concerns
about the current state of affairs is that no one seems
to care about the conditions of everyday living any
more. There were of course awful periods in history like
the conditions experienced during the depression of the
1920s and 1930s but at least they bred social movements
where people had a serious regard for the welfare of
others but the years of relative peace and stability
has made people in general greedy and only interested
in themselves.
My comment:
Sean, if you were subjected on a daily basis to the constant moronic TV adverts
and the sex laden so-called sit-coms aimed mainly at the twenty to thirty something
year old audiences, (the ones with oodles of plastic money, or should I say
plastic debt) - you wouldn’t be amazed. No, you would be horrified. Hey
there - this should give me some ideas for a paragraph about American TV for
a future newsletter.
I totally agree with you that people of today’s
world are in general greedy and self-centred and I would
suggest that we have to get rid of the dog eat dog mentality
and introduce some kind of stability and discipline into
our lives and return to old fashioned civility in order
to rid ourselves of the blatant and rabid materialism
that now exists.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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