We're Number 37, We're the USA!

I could have entitled my post, "Yeah, but we're number 1, we're France!", but sometimes I have to decide for which nationality I am writing, or which one I am representing. Kind of both at once, with a fair amount of frustration most usually.

Actually, it sounds better in French: "Ouai, mais on est le premier, on est la France!"

On est la France!

La France! La France! La France!

My husband went off this morning to his job as a doctor in a public hospital here. Mon mari! Mon mari! Mon mari!

We're number 1! We're number1! La France! La France!

Who was it who wrote something I read this morning, something I suspected deep in my Franco-American bones when I started telling people, "We're number 37, we're the USA. France is number 1, who wouldn't want to live in France for the health care and the food?": Americans don't like international organizations. Americans are suspicious of international organizations. Which Americans? Those tea-bagging birthers.

"Liberal-leaning and open-minded. That's what I say."

"Wrecking the capitalist empire party, if you ask me."

"Cooked up by those "We Are The World" people to try to make us feel like we might have responsibilities if we want to be number 1, that's what they're trying to shove down our throat."

Number 1 rules, man! Number 1 rocks!

Except when it's, um, number 37, and you're still really poor and, um, igno... duped.
....

PS: read Richard Cohen today.