“Big A” does Geneva the American Way
TRAVEL
by Anthony Richardson Bonjour. … I’m not a tourist-trap type
person when I travel, I’m more of an observa- tionist and a culture absorber. So don’t expect to see me grinnin’ and cheesin’ in photos with the Eiffel Tower or the Great Pyramids be- hind me. Instead, I like to use common, everyday tasks and places in cities like Geneva to educate and entertain people. Me and my soulmate and partner in crime, Dr. Kelly Winter, have traveled to Europe a few times in the past five years for business and pleasure. Along the way, we’ve visited several different countries and cities both large and small.
Prior to us leaving the country, I’ve no-
ticed the majority of our American friends usually make statements to us like “Safe trav- els” or “Be careful” or “Be safe,” etc. But they never make these kind of statements as we’ve traveled to Oakland, St.Louis, New Orleans, DC, Miami, LA, Boston, or any of these target ranges masquerading as American cities. This leads me to believe that most Americans actually think that they’re safer in an Ameri- can city than in some of these European cities. And the truth is – they’re out of their damn minds. … Hehehe. … I’m not gonna post a bunch of crime statistics to prove my point, but a quick Google search should do it for ya.
On our prior European visits, as well as
our month-long visit to Geneva, I never heard any mention of a certain kind of news story that is very popular in the states: Murder with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, armed car
jacking, assault with a deadly weapon, strong arm home invasion, road rage incident that led to gunshots, or weekly mass shootings. That’s because gun ownership is outlawed in most of these countries. And even in the ones that do allow them, guns are not as easy to get as a six-pack of beer – like in America. I felt very comfortable with my wife walking to and from the train station, to the store, and on any of the streets, at any time of the night in Geneva. I don’t feel that way about any Amer- ican city regardless of size – not Philadelphia, Mississippi – not Philadelphia, PA. And I talked to several Europeans who
have similar misconceptions about us. I was surprised to find that a lot of Europeans think we all own guns, and are all staunch defend- ers of the 2nd Amendment. One person actu- ally thought the NRA was a votable political party. This is a byproduct of the groups over- exposure by the US media. The NRA actually has a little over 3.5 million members, in a country of 330 million citizens – about one- percent of the population. Yet they certainly wield tremendous political power. But hell, the Kardashians have a lot more influence over Americans’ daily behavior than the NRA. One of the things that Switzerland and
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