I have lived in the United States for my entire life. I've never actually been outside the country either. I know people from other countries think it's shocking but when you look at the actual size of the country, there are so many places to go inside the country and it's so large that it's not really that surprising.
And don't let Alaska fool you either, it's never shown actual size. Here it is actual size:
Currently, I live in the 2nd largest (land size) state in the U.S. known as Texas. It's really a big state. I can drive in a fairly straight line for 9 hours and still be in Texas if I really tried. For a frame of reference, let's overlay it over Europe.
At last count, I'd only visited 23 states. I haven't really done anything on the east coast. Perhaps, I'll have to visit my brother-in-law one of these days and do a historical tour.
The United States isn't really that bad of a country to live in. We do take our free speech rights and freedom of religion for granted. There are definitely things that are changing that I'm not happy about and I'm not pleased at all with our current president. His values are not consistent with my values at all. But I can say that publicly on a blog and not have to worry about being arrested. Go free speech, go.
I love the size comparison pictures! However, I did want to point out that our freedom of speech is gradually fading. Criminal defamation laws are in place in some states which makes speaking against a public figure legally punishable. Also, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) is extremely threatening to freedom of speech. Yes, things are definitely changing.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I often wonder what the girls will face. And my feelings about SOPA are somewhere in an earlier post.
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