laura.fo

Dear Limey assholes: American responses to the Guardian's campaign to try and sway the Ohio electorate in Clark County. All funny, none surprising, but I had to agree with this one: Nothing will do more to undermine the Democratic cause in Ohio than having patronising Brits wander around Clark County telling people how to vote. Just, for a second, imagine if the Washington Post sent folks from Ohio to do the same in Oxfordshire. I'm saying this as a Democrat, and as someone who has spent the last few years in the UK. That is, with all due respect. Please, please, be rational, and move slowly away from the self-defeating hubris.

And, in case that didn't drive it home, another one: Your plan, if carried out, will hurt the Bush opposition TERRIBLY. We cannot afford to have this associated with John Kerry or anyone else.

And my personal favorite: My dear, beloved Brits, I understand the Guardian is sponsoring a service where British citizens write to Americans to advise them on how to vote. Thank heavens! I was adrift in a sea of confusion and you are my beacon of hope! Feel free to respond to this email with your advice. Please keep in mind that I am something of an anglophile, so this is not confrontational. Please remember, too, that I am merely an American. That means I am not very bright. It means I have no culture or sense of history. It also means that I am barely literate, so please don't use big, fancy words.

I only bring this up because, elsewhere in Europe, teenage Sikhs in France are going to court over the right to wear the turban in public schools. Sikhs are a small minority in France, but because turbans are an expression of religion they were caught under the anti-hijab ban.

And here's the thing. You can say that "we shouldn't patronize other cultures" under the guise of taking an open-minded multi-cultural outlook, and that's fine. Or you can say no, human rights are human rights, there's a hard line, and I don't care if people think we're lecturing them when we tell them to knock it off with the honor killings or the FGM or the wearing of hijab or voting for Bush or whatever else you believe to be Just Plain Wrong under any circumstances. But engaging in the second line of thinking while being completely ignorant of the first argument undermines your cause.