Calling All Serbs! You CAN Make a Difference
Posted by Joni in General
If any Serbs are reading this blog (and I hope some are), please read this great article by Rosemary Bailey Brown. She’s married to a Serb ex-pat. While Rosemary has a unique perspective on things, she missteps comparing the histories of the two countries. Serbia is an OLD country; the U.S. is a very young country, relatively speaking. We can’t claim roots that go back to the 10th Century. Plus, it’s a bit disengenuous to think that Serbs want to befriend America or even to understand it. Their kneejerk reaction to a country that unilaterally and without provocation bombed them, bombed their highways and byways, power plants, electrical sources, water sources, radio towers (Avala, anyone?) is abject hatred and who can blame them?
I may be one of those small handful — two percent — of Americans who even know anything about Serbia and because I do, I’ve managed to delve into quite a bit of its history, and particularly into what really went on in the 1990s. Our country, along with Western mainstream media, has swept just about all of this right under the rug. They have reason to. What our country did was wrong and there is no excuse for it. And because of that, I’m ashamed to be an American.
But YOU have a chance to make a difference in how the majority of Americans view Serbia. And in how Serbia views the U.S. Myself? I have been fortunate enough to get to know a great Serbian man. I’d LOVE to think that most Serbs are like him, honest, forthright, gentle, decent, loyal, kind. He accepts me even though I’m sure he’s not happy about what my country did to his. But we got past that. Maybe others can too. Pozdrav!