Americans afraid of travel?: Response to Obama trip suggests “yes”

I think the timing of your thoughts on Americans and their fear of travel is appropiate. It seems that Europe is anxious to see that the Americans are interested in what is going on in the rest of the world. I mean, 200,000 people in Berlin, a large press gallery in Britian and many other hightlights of the trip would suggest to me that its not just Obama but people are looking for a deeper trans-atlantic understanding of each other. ____As a Canadian, I hear mumblings of the fact that US citizens on average do not have an up-to-date passport or any interest in travelling. In all fairness, I am in Shanghai and I have met some great Americans that are anxious to see the world and show the world that they dont hold up to the sterotypes of being sheltered. ____Here is some food for thought that I thought might go along with your discussion. I went to google to see if I could get an answer on the issue of the percentage of passports to US population. I found an interesting article by a journalist named Alkman Granitsas. It fits nicely with this post: ____” target=”_blank”>http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=655…

People come to see Obama for a several reasons….. – He is the most talented politician on the global scene at the moment – He gives people hope, which, if you think about it, ought to be what all politicians do all of the time…. but unfortunately, so few of them do. (certainly no neocons) – He is brave and strong-willed – He is an intelligent, studied, and inspirational speaker – He really seems to have thought everything through, and understands how to lift the people (and economy) of USA. I genuinely think that not electing him president would be a bigger mistake than the Iraq war. … to Kira…. even if all 19,000 US expats were there, that's still 181,000 europeans.