Just to be perfectly clear...

I received a comment tonight that was extremely hurtful, so much so that I cannot ignore it. It was a personal attack on myself, so I will not publish it (It's one thing to disagree with me or constructively criticize what I say, it's quite another to go at me personally without saying much else of substance, and I don't feel I have any obligation to publish things like that on my own blog). This blog is just a collection of my opinions and experiences and sharing things I learned in my travels in the hopes that someone else might read it and think about things before their own trip. I'm not pretending to know everything about anything - not the places I've been or the people I met along the way or really anything at all. It's just my own opinions and experiences. I thought that, this being a blog and all, these kinds of things would be quite obvious.

This person told me that my commentary on tourists versus travelers made me an ignorant American. Anyone who knows me who reads this blog - and I know there are a few - know that breaking the "ignorant" or "ugly" American stereotype is something very important to me, and those who know me know how hurtful that statement is to me because of how hard I tried to put on a good face for Americans when I was in Europe. Can I single-handedly change the world? Of course not, and I've never pretended that I could. I don't know where this commenter was from, but I must assume not from the United States - in which case, I have to say that blindly calling a stranger "ignorant" is, arguably, just as ignorant as I was accused of being in the first place.

But honestly, I don't even see how calling me an "ignorant American" based on my Traveler vs Tourist post makes any sense, since what I do in that posting is encourage people to go out of their comfort zones and spend the time to really be able to experience and appreciate the cultures of the places they visit. I realize my opinions may be controversial, and I have no problem with that. But considering the whole goal of the post is to share with people my opinions about how to better experience other cultures - in other words the complete opposite to what an "ignorant American" does - I fail to see how that post evidences me being an "ignorant American."

And quite frankly, when a person from Lisbon tells me my description of his/her city is one of the best he/she has ever read by a non-local, that means a lot to me, and it means that I am succeeding in my desire to NOT be another ignorant American. Because isn't the whole point that an "ignorant American" is incapable of experiencing other cultures, they think there's nothing beyond how we live here? Clearly, this is not who I am. I'm many other things and I have many many imperfections, but an ignorant American is not one of them.

It makes me sad that I even had to say this stuff at all. It goes without saying that I wouldn't expect everyone to agree with me. What would be the point if we all agreed? I love comments and would love to hear from people who disagree with me. But I don't think there's any need to personally insult a blogger who wants to share their experiences with whomever wants to read them. I'm trying to help people here, not hurt them. And just to be even MORE clear, I never said that Americans are the only ones who are tourists instead of travelers. Anyone from any country can give short shrift to a city that deserves more - I saw it with my own eyes when I was overseas. Anyone from any country can be a "checklist tourist" who runs around and sees only the museums but ignores a place's soul.

This is not a political blog and as a proud American I won't stand by and let people assume things about Americans - myself included. There are ignorant people from all over the world, not just America. But there are also wonderful travelers from all over the world, including America. I'm just writing my own thoughts down on this big internet.

Thanks. Grazie. Obrigada. Gracias. Merci. Danke.