General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHad you been consulted, ahead of time, and knowing what you know now,
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
(4,393 posts)Where I can make a difference keeping it that way....
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)As my eyesight has dimmed, I am seeing things more clearly.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,775 posts)ret5hd
(21,305 posts)Chainfire
(17,757 posts)This is how Forbes ranks the happiest countries in the world:
Worlds 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
(34,843 posts)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
(52,883 posts)Auggie
(31,758 posts)anywhere between Marin and Orange Counties.
hlthe2b
(105,866 posts)Maybe Canada--i.e., Toronto, British Columbia, or Alberta
JI7
(90,237 posts)csziggy
(34,189 posts)I'm reasonably comfortable with who I am, so no, I would not change where I was born.
Raine
(30,592 posts)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
(2,533 posts)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
(94,218 posts)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 Britains loss was Americas gain.
Actually I am more than okay with where Ive spent my life: growing up in Hawaii marked me to the core in ways I would never change, and spending whats going to be the rest of my life on the Central Coast of California has as well. When I left Hawaii at 32 I deliberately chose someplace not in Los Angeles with its freeways and millions of people, and not inland, where its 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 youre on, that means a great deal.
Maxheader
(4,393 posts)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...
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 thats another story...
Crunchy Frog
(26,887 posts)marie999
(3,334 posts)Then I would like to live in the Sierra Mountains near Yosemite at about 4,000 feet.
Roisin Ni Fiachra
(2,574 posts)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
(914 posts)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
(30,592 posts)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
(17,662 posts)Chainfire
(17,757 posts)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
(68,067 posts)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
(24,716 posts)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.