Reply #172: I guess they have a right - but I'm not a fan of any kind of flag waving

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

I feel very uncomfortable when I watch the Olympics and hear people chanting "USA", "USA", "USA" at the top of their voices. Too many people in too many countries have died for flags. I haven't really waved an American flag with any gusto (except maybe in 2004 at a Wes Clark rally) since I was a little kid and held up a big flag when John F. Kennedy drove by my house. To me, the world has changed since then. And I would never go to a foreign country and wave an American flag in their face.

If Mexican people in the United States want to wave a Mexican flag, it doesn't really bother me, but I can't say I understand it. After all, the Mexican government has exploited the Mexican people even more than U.S. and CIA meddling in Latin America has exploited the people. Mexico is the richest country in Latin America but has the greatest poor. Mexico has the third richest man in the world according to the 2006 Forbes list of the world's richest men. Mexico has 10 of the 26 billionaires in Latin America. Billionaires! Mexico has the lowest tax rate in Latin America, at about 12 percent, compared to about 24 percent in the United States. Their tax rate is low, frankly, because super rich fucks are greedy and don't want to part with their money. The result is a very low tax revenue for Mexico and very poor social services and infrastructure for the people who really are in need. And Mexico doesn't even have affirmative action laws to help women become more competitive in the workplace. I've read somewhere that about $20 billion a year is spent by Mexico's federal government in paying for bribes. And look at the people who are running Mexico like Mr. Fox - certainly not a man of the poor classes, no different than here. I guess Mexicans can be proud of their heritage and it doesn't bother me. But if that flag stands for the extremely corrupt, abusive, and feudal system that reigns in Mexico and keeps the poor people mired in poverty and the rich people living in vast estates guarded by private armies, then I really don't understand pride in the Mexican flag. I feel bad for them flying that flag, like I have felt bad for young American people going into illegal wars with flying flags believing that their country is tops. Although, as I said, they're free to fly their flag in America and it doesn't bother me, I have to say I don't understand it.