How my love affair with America was betrayed - and still needs repairing |
I lived in New York for five years and travelled to every corner of the United States; to every state except North Dakota, Hawaii and Alaska. I fell in love with the country, its democratic foundations, its no-nonsense vibrant economy, its music which became the world's music.
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But my non-American friends would slag the country off - gun violence, racism, extreme poverty alongside extreme wealth: you know the list.
I would then point out that the US was much more complicated than that. It was, to my mind, a great, invigorating place. If my work hadn't moved me elsewhere, I would have stayed.
I would have been proud to become an American citizen.
I would point out to those doubters, that American scientists dominated the Nobel prizes, particularly in chemistry, physics, medicine and economics. There have been 426 American winners overall, though that included Bob Dylan for literature, compared to Australia's 15 for example, which includes Patrick White. Albeit, our population is a twelfth of that of the U.S.
But then came the last two years of Trump and his Rotten Republic where every day seemed to bring a new jaw-dropping headline about corruption at the very top or the breakdown of the rule of law (and therefore of democracy).
And a swathe of........