Had you been consulted, ahead of time, and knowing what you know now,

[Chainfire]

Where would you have selected being born? I may have chosen Scotland or maybe one of the countries North of Scotland.
I really think that I would have fit in better.

I am really ill with the people that I live around. Except for a few close friends and family, I live in Trump Heaven, and it is not what I would have chosen. Whenever I go out, I am surrounded by shit-for-brains right-wingers, ignorant and proud; and that includes most of the professional people too! 20 years ago, it was not so bad, but the people are now feeling their oats and are becoming more belligerent and intolerant by the day. The legacy of the Reagan-Trump express train, and too many years of Rush fucking Limbaugh and right-wing Christian preaching. They have all of the answers even if they don't understand the questions.

I guess fate has chosen for me, and it is too late in life to move now, and I love the land I am on, so I choose seclusion as far as possible.

[Maxheader]

1. I would live in the greatest country on earth..

Where I can make a difference keeping it that way....

[Chainfire]

4. I felt that way for most of my life, but I am not feeling that way late in life.

As my eyesight has dimmed, I am seeing things more clearly.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. So many reasons why US is NOT the greatest country on earth.

[ret5hd]

10. What is the criteria for "greatest"?

[Chainfire]

16. I would call it the Country where the population is the most content.

This is how Forbes ranks the happiest countries in the world:

World’s 20 Happiest Countries

Finland
Iceland
Denmark
Switzerland
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany
Norway
New Zealand
Austria
Israel
Australia
Ireland
United States
Canada
Czech Republic
Belgium
United Kingdom
Taiwan
France

[Walleye]

2. Delaware turned out to be a pretty good place to be born.

And raised in the 50s and 60s. And after I traveled around for 25 years they welcomed me back like I never left. Always proud of Delaware but even more since we sent a great president to Washington

[sinkingfeeling]

3. The Republic of Ireland.

[Auggie]

5. California Coast ...

anywhere between Marin and Orange Counties.

[hlthe2b]

6. Republic of Ireland

Maybe Canada--i.e., Toronto, British Columbia, or Alberta

[JI7]

8. You mean where we were raised ? Many of us end up in places we were not born in

[csziggy]

9. If I'd been born somewhere else, I'd be a different person

I'm reasonably comfortable with who I am, so no, I would not change where I was born.

[Raine]

11. Right here in the good ole USA but instead of being born in Los Angeles

Last edited Mon May 17, 2021, 12:39 AM - Edit history (1)

I would have selected the central coast of California where it's less crowded and over built.

[Boxerfan]

12. I could have stayed in Switzerland if chance had gone that way.

And now judging in retrospect I sorta wish I had been raised there but of course who knows.

But I was 3 1/2

The large folk and my siblings were all watching a water skier on lake LeMan in Lausanne Switzerland. I could not see over the stone wall & and ran towards the toys I had left in the park across the road.

And I ran in front of a car. He braked running over my left foot-smearing it almost flat. I fell back and hit my head on the curb suffering a fractured skull.

I have a vague memory of a memory waking up in the ambulance. Plastic surgery was a new technique & not common in the USA. My foot was repaired and they said I would always have a limp. I ignored that and have always had few complications other than weak ankles and oddly placed bumps. I also survived the head trauma but I can still feel the skull stitches on my balding head.

My Dad came & took me back to Houston.

The real story is my Mom ran away from my abusive rich father. I don't know if she carried a load of cash with her to Switzerland and I never have gotten the real story . I asked her on her deathbed what happened and she refused any details.

I do know she drove a small import car from Portola Valley Ca. to New York and boarded a liner for France. 3 kids all under 8 I was 3 and she managed to make it all the way there. I was told to be near fluent in French in short order-making rounds on the beach begging for snacks.

And I'm the one who ended it all by getting hit by a car. Typical dumb kid move eh?.

Ok I'm 63 now & I listen to Jazz stations from France. And indeed I wonder what would have been.

Lovely Jazz-sooths the soul.
http://radio.garden/listen/la-distillerie-sonore/yh-hG70H

-------TMI ALERT

Oh-My Dad died when I was 13 (or was offed by his new wife who had us kids written out of the will & somehow his family helped her and jeesus b christo it was f'd up family). And she is scott free using up his estate like tissue and I get to see the bills.

My Mom lived to her mid 60's and passed from smoking related lung issues. She was the type who smoked on Oxygen. She worked on the original Star Wars and frankly had a amazing life.

[Hekate]

13. Every so often when I contemplate the living literature & theatre of England I wonder...

But every place has its troubles, and so do they. I have now met two women from Britain, highly accomplished in my eyes, who told me their mothers sent them to voice lessons to get rid of their regional and class accents, which apparently were not posh enough to ever allow them to rise very high in the academic or governmental worlds.

I was kind of stunned, to tell the truth. But Britain’s loss was America’s gain.

Actually I am more than okay with where I’ve spent my life: growing up in Hawai’i marked me to the core in ways I would never change, and spending what’s going to be the rest of my life on the Central Coast of California has as well. When I left Hawai’i at 32 I deliberately chose someplace not in Los Angeles with its freeways and millions of people, and not inland, where it’s hot, dry, and real conservative. Where I landed was a good place to raise my kids, and though my career choices were limited, it was a good place for me to get involved in social activism once I had the time.

I wish you all the best — if you love the land you’re on, that means a great deal.

[Maxheader]

15. Airbus Wichita, knew a couple of British engineers.

The wife of one was hired by one of the local stations to

put a little zest into the morning programs with her lovely

British narrative...

[Hekate]

19. Nice!

To me, their accents sounded educated and perfect, but apparently there are some exceedingly fine distinctions remaining in that little world, and it can matter in parts of it.

I like how people speak, but that’s another story...

[Crunchy Frog]

14. New Zealand.

[marie999]

17. Roxbury, part of Boston, where I spent my first 12 years.

Then I would like to live in the Sierra Mountains near Yosemite at about 4,000 feet.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

18. If I was born after 1980, Canada.

Before 1980, the US.

Reagan began the regression and decline of the US and subsequently ruined our country. 1980 was the beginning of the rapid devolution that brought about the slowdown of social progress and general use of sound reasoning, and led to the mass madness of the former guy and his psyQotic worshipers.

The 60's and early 70's were a great time to be alive in the US, wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Fuck Reagan for what he did to our country.

[RegularJam]

20. I love the great experiment that is the great old U S of A.

It's where I would choose to be born. As would a whole lot of people who don't live here if asked this question.

Of course many are attracted to people who look like themselves so they will say a country that is 95+% white, if they share that skin color.

The diversity of this country is one of the things I love most.

[Raine]

24. Yes I noticed

that even most people here who'd rather be somewhere other then the USA have chosen those type of countries that they'd prefer to live in.

[BannonsLiver]

21. Definitely not in the US

[Chainfire]

22. After some further contemplation, perhaps we did get a chance to pick, and just don't remember. ;)

If so, a lot of dumbasses picked Afghanistan or North Korea......

Personally, I can't remember a damn thing from before I was born, or for that fact, for a couple of years later, and then only fleeting moments.....

[Aristus]

23. Probably Denmark.

If I were to grow up to be the same thing I am now, a clinical medicine practitioner, I would never have to worry about asking my patients if they have medical insurance.

[Mr.Bill]

25. I would have picked the USA, but

California specifically. I was born in Baltimore, as were both of my parents, but we didn't move to California until I was eight years old in 1961.