{"id":4146,"date":"2020-12-30T07:48:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T07:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=144621"},"modified":"2020-12-30T07:48:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T07:48:21","slug":"america-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/30\/america-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"America Sucks"},"content":{"rendered":"
That\u2019s the title of a poem I wrote back in the 1970s when I was living in Los Angeles and aspired to be part of the post-Beat Generation. In those days I had read all the good guys, Proudhon, Bakunin, Max Stirner, Orwell\u2019s books about being down and out as well as his sojourn in Andalusia. I had a rudimentary grasp of Marxism. Tito and the Italian Communists were still doing the world a favor and being part of the non-aligned movement, not siding with the Soviets or the Americans. Just a few years earlier I had traveled from New Delhi to London and back to New Delhi, overland, through Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey without a hateful word or glance being raised against me. Of course I was traveling on an Italian passport, so that was an advantage. The Americans crossing the borders did get some hard stares and long waits and extra backpack checks before they were eventually waved through to the other side. No wars were being fought. I traveled alone by bus and train, mixed in with the locals and nobody ever treated me badly. In fact, I was able to sleep in a bus station office one night in Tehran because the bus I needed to take would leave at 6 in the morning and the bus station manager figured it would be easier for me if I slept there. Kindness.<\/p>\n