Tymeless
We are still evolving!
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2005
- Posts
- 6,480
We in Europe are working our way through the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Ireland had their vote on it last week and voted NOT to ratify.
The UK were promised a vote by bliar but thats been renaged on by brown. Other countries now look as though there will be dissent.
When the EU was an elite group of 11 countries, it was keen to band to gether and make a lot of rules, laws etc universal. Now that the EU has expanded to include countries so far from the traditional group, we have realised that a "one size fits all" treaty isnt workable.
Example .....Turkey are soooo keen to join yet they dont understand some basics about human life in a first world state. Having sex with 11 year old girls isnt acceptable, its sex abuse and is a crime under EU law, yet to them its an everyday occurence.
For that and many other reasons i dont think they are fit to join and thats down to cultural differences, so lumping us all together isnt suitable.
That is why its hard to lump the United States together as a whole. When people ask us where we are from we always identify as a resident of our states or our cities. We rarely just say I'm from the USA. I don't even think about myself as an American until I talk to people outside the states. My state as a whole is still got some backwater idea's but they are coming around to giving all people equal rights slowly but surely. Ohio is the 35th state in size and I think 7th in population and we get a bigger say in what happens in Washington DC then other places but our say is still very minimal at best. Thats why nothing ever gets done in washington because there are over 400 representatives and 100 senators. Then a president that can veto a law just because he doesn't agree with it when something does get through. Not to mention everyone is worried about pleasing the masses to get reelected instead of doing things they know are right.
Things will change here but you've got to remember like its been said we have 50 states covering a lot of ground and 300+ million citizens its hard to make any change rapidly but when we do make changes they are most always for the better.