High time citizens from rest of the world actively boycott travelling & working in the USA. It is just not worth getting shot by a random idiot while walking on the street.
This kind of news about racists and bigots running around the country coupled together with the fact that one person at the border can mess up your entire life for not giving away your passwords makes me want to stay away from the U.S for now.
Don't get me wrong, visiting the US has always been a dream for me and almost everyone I know, since it was this place where someone could go to make something of themselves, you know a place where they accepted and rewarded you for the hard work you did. May be we grew up and now realize that dream was just really good marketing. Who knows, I am just sad I have to read stuff like this too frequently these days.
I can understand your unease with visiting the US, and I certainly don't wish to dismiss your valid concerns, but I think tragic and hateful events like this can also serve to highlight the good in people.
It should be noted that one of the injured was some random white dude who tried to pursue the gunman.
Again, I understand why you feel the way you do and I'm not dismissing those concerns, but there are a lot of wonderful people in the US as well.
Sadly all it takes is a gun in the hands of a non-wonderful person. Not dismissing your comment but as an Indian, I'm seeing the damage just one a can do compared against the wonderful people.
Other than the US, which countries do you feel provide similar opportunities to immigrants? I'm currently 17 years old and it has been my childhood dream to somehow make it to the US, but such news deeply saddens me and insights fear into my mind. It is with deep regret that I have to read such news everyday and realise that it just takes 1 messed up person to destroy your life.
Aren't there any other countries where hardwork would pay and dreams could come true, without having a general fear of getting shot?
There's nothing quite like it, but there are alternatives that may be better along different (mostly cultural) axis. If it's your desire to work for a big tech company, they have offices in Europe and elsewhere, it's not quite HQ, but it's an option, particularly given how challenging the visa situation is.
>This kind of news about racists and bigots running around the country coupled together with the fact that one person at the border can mess up your entire life for not giving away your passwords makes me want to stay away from the U.S for now.
Couple that with the fact that you are being fingerprinted and photographed, like you are some kind criminal, just because you want to visit the country and spend money there. That alone is enough for me to never visit the U.S..
"since it was this place where someone could go to make something of themselves, you know a place where they accepted and rewarded you for the hard work you did"
absolutely.
im saddened that it feels so risky to visit/work in a country founded on(and to a large part lived up to) such lofty principles.
This is just as silly as the people who say that we need to ban Muslims from entering the US because they're too dangerous.
Your odds of being murdered in a hate crime in this country are quite low. You're far more likely to be killed by a drunk driver or by falling down the stairs. As a general rule, any event that shows up in the national news is something not common enough to be afraid of, because anything that common is no longer newsworthy pretty much by definition.
Traffic fatalities have ticked up quite a bit in the past couple of years, with about 40,000 deaths in 2016, but the rough magnitude is correct.
But I'm specifically talking about hate crimes. The vast majority of those firearm deaths were suicides, and the vast majority of the homicides weren't hate crimes. According to the FBI, there were 18 murders that qualified as hate crimes in 2015 (the most recent year available): https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2015/topic-pages/incidentsand...
When I first moved to the US (Capitol Hill, Seattle), reading the local news about someone being shot and killed in street robberies gone wrong a few blocks from my apartment were a bit of a shock having moved from Australia.
Sure, our current statistics show your statement to be true. But, I think many people are alarmed at the trajectory of hate and intolerance in the US.
Also, being murdered is the worst thing that could happen, and maybe that event is still rare, but a set of stairs isn't going to harass you or discriminate against you. There's a whole spectrum of bad things that could happen to people because of the climate in the US.
For me, getting shot while walking on the street and getting shot when having a normal conversation in a bar looks almost same.
I genuinely want to know, what is the difference between the above comment and this particular incident. Because, this reasoning might also be the reason, why in U.S people prefer to have guns in their daily life (where living is the goal, and not how to prevent dying).
I think you've misunderstood the conversation. I am including getting shot while having a normal conversation in a bar. When I pointed out how unlikely it is to get shot as part of a hate crime, the response moved the goalposts to include "a whole spectrum of bad things that could happen" including non-fatal harassment and discrimination.
Having someone call you names or refuse you service, while bad, isn't what the original comment was talking about.
Please don't do this. In fact I encourage the opposite, that people travel more (not just to the US), and further solidify the idea that we are one planet that needs to unite and should not be afraid to travel.
Overwhelm the borders. Double or triple the numbers. Show peacefully that we are positive and not backing down to the pettiness and ignorance of the current (and temporary) leaders and their cronies.
On this note, I would encourage people to visit India (my country). I think the general perception people have (or had) about India is poor people all over the place begging. But, you will be amazed at how demographics (language, food, culture, day to day way of living) change for every 100 miles and still we stick together irrespective of countless language, religion, caste and cultural differences.
But, on the other hand, I'm also amazed that with so many people in US carrying guns in their daily lives, it is a miracle that most people are walking and living and doing some great things. Whatever it is, this whole gun culture is beyond my comprehension and I think it is good thing.
This is completely the USA's own responsibility to fix. This is your responsibility to fix. Don't expect anyone to risk life and limb for your failures.
While this particular incident is the action of the one nutter, 63m people voted for Trump despite his anti Muslim, anti Mexican, etc. rethoric & his alt-right team. So I'd have questions about what the opinion of the entire country actually is. If I were a person of colour/muslin faith I'd be even more reluctant.
I agree with your opinion. Why visit a country that elected a President that completely opposes immigrants coming into his country? USA's President has made it very clear that the country doesn't want any immigrants. I know that he's facing a lot of backlash and most people here would say that they're not with the same view as Trump, but guess what? Trump calls the shots for at least the next 4 years. It is extremely saddening, but the United States government is officially showing immigrants the finger.
I don't feel it is valid because it is rather nonsensical to group an entire country of 300 plus million into the same teaspoon of, at most, a handful of mentally insane killers.
It's not about saying everyone or even most people in the US are racist. It's about considering whether a visit would be marred by the current miasma of (institutional?) racism/anti-immigrant sentiment.
For example: would you, as a US citizen, choose to visit Iran vs going somewhere else?
Huh. It is up to govt of other nations to raise this issue or issue travel/work advisories. Instead Indian govt for the lure of dollars is pushing for more visas and ease of travel would do show anything more than 'concern'.
Nearly everywhere in the US that isn't city is open to hunting. A big exception is the National Park System, but only a few of those are very large. Of course Russia is the largest country by land area so what you say is likely to be true, but still, pretty much everyone in the US is fairly close to viable hunting grounds.
Of course not everyone hunts, but then owning 2 or 3 firearms for different types of hunting isn't really outlandish.
I bought a shotgun to shoot clay, and then I was given another shotgun that was 70 years old from someone who was cleaning out a relative's house that just died. I now own 2 guns bringing the guns per capita in my household to 1.
Guns unlike cars which also approach 1 per capita never really disappear. Not saying this is a good thing. Over the history of our gun owning country a lot have been made. Surely there are nuts out there that buy an arsenal but many guns are handed down over the years and kept. People also collect historical weapons.
It is hard to understand as suburban/city dwellers like myself, but in most other places in the country it is perfectly fine to be given granddad's guns and to keep them around adding to the statistics.
Just so you know, I am from the same City and University as the victim in this story. In our country(most other countries too) we, the common citizens, which includes most of the population, don't own firearms, use firearms, even as show-pieces or even see them everyday. It is hard for us to understand why they even allow you to own them.
Rofl. Just like the shooter picked on the indians thinking they're arabs. If you're trying to prove that americans have no idea there is a world outside their borders, you're succeeding wonderfully.
>Rofl. Just like the shooter picked on the indians thinking they're arabs. If you're trying to prove that americans have no idea there is a world outside their borders, you're succeeding wonderfully.
Actually, it was the existence of Madras, Oregon that I was unaware of. That's why I assumed the page was about Madras, India.
Don't get me wrong, visiting the US has always been a dream for me and almost everyone I know, since it was this place where someone could go to make something of themselves, you know a place where they accepted and rewarded you for the hard work you did. May be we grew up and now realize that dream was just really good marketing. Who knows, I am just sad I have to read stuff like this too frequently these days.