close to home

We have almost always felt safe living in Sweden. More so perhaps even than our old neighborhood in Cincinnati. Our guard is so down living out here in the country I think it's going to be a bigger transition moving back than I want to think about. Having said that, and not to worry the home crowd, something happened a couple weeks ago here that might serve as a reminder no place is a utopia. An unknown group set fire to four closed grocery stores around the Stockholm area. Three of those sustained significant damage or burned to the ground. The reason given - the stores sold American goods.

Come to think of it they mostly sold a lot of Swedish goods. And Danish. And Italian. And Thai and British and German and Middle Eastern and Greek and...you get the point. There's no reasoning to it. Did the stores sell Head & Shoulders and Coke & Pepsi and other items? Yep. Did the fire bombers touch any McDonalds or Pizza Huts or Burger Kings or Ford or Chevrolet or Harley Davidson dealerships or any clearly American targets? Not this time around. Just the Swedish grocery stores that everyone uses and now has to find another to shop at in its place. Many of those shoppers are immigrants and riding buses, not the most convenient means of transporting goods and now even less convenient.

Do the attacks make me/us feel any less safe as Americans living outside the country? Not really. Most of the attacks were an hour and a half from here down by the Tom Tit Museum. And none was personal in nature nor directed at harming life though obviously could have. One was near John's former school out here in Värmdö - the fire that caused the least amount of damage. Still, does it remind us we are outside America, even a little? Yep. Do we still feel more safe than we did back home? Probably.

The attacks now a days don't even warrant a note in the papers. In fact I had to dig to find out information even two days later. Are the Swedes alarmed? Obviously not. The cashier at our local grocery store laughed it off saying kids are just getting bored with watching soccer and are mischievous.

It's an interesting topic to ponder as an immigrant. Sweden has taken in many refugees from war torn and political crisis areas making it a humanitarian melting pot of potential former enemies. Still you hear very little about ethnic violence. There is a city in the south that has repeated gang trouble in certain areas but it is an exception - more of a turf war than an ethnic war. Personally I've had many conversations with folks from countries the U.S. has invaded, threatened, sanctioned, boycotted and the like. Do most people separate the political leadership from joe citizen? Of course. Can we find a lot of common ground? If we can't we're in trouble. In turn, probably the more important question is can I forget where they are from or is it a filter that works against them? That is a big question.

I think since coming here some of the closest friends I have bonded with have been other immigrants from my Swedish class. Most of them are Iraqi and I can say that I will truly miss them when we move. Our interactions have been graceful and warm and authentic, vulnerable and even painfully honest at times. My memories of living here will be framed by them and their journey to safety and professional reestablishment for them and their families, ironically while fleeing a foreign policy funded by my tax dollars. Were these people guilty by association because of their leaders' policies? Am I? This is not meant to sound anti-American, even subtlely. But I do think though in general with strength comes great responsibility and humility. If those aren't possessed by our world leaders, people suffer.

I'd like to look the other way and say the problem is still 'over there,' like before we came, but unfortunately living here for these past two years has forever effected my perception in ways I am not completely clear how. Interestingly, about 6 billion other people live outside the US. That's about 96% of the world's population. 96% All I can say is that if you have the means or opportunity to see the world and experience different cultures, do it. You will never regret it.