Back when I first started WordRidden, I used to spend an enormous amount of time on the Web reading other people’s online journals and weblogs. This went on for quite a while, and then it just sorta…stopped. I don’t know why, really - I ran out of time, I couldn’t be bothered, too much was going on in my own life for me to want to read about someone else’s, I don’t know.

Now, after a long gap, I’ve gotten back into the habit of checking out other people’s sites on a more-or-less regular basis. I’m particularly happy to have rediscovered Tomato Nation, which must be one of my favorite sites on the entire Web. Sarah Bunting is the woman behind the site, and her fantastic writing consistently manages to strike a chord with me. She’s wordy and literate, and by turns her essays can make me laugh out loud, get all misty-eyed and want to shout, "Yeah! Right on! What she said!"

In going back through the Tomato Nation archives this morning, I came across a particularly interesting piece of writing - interesting among other reasons because, as regards the sentiment, it could have been written by me.

I’m an American who has lived outside of America for quite a while now, and while I’d be first in line to criticize the negative things about America and America’s attitude towards and influence on the rest of the world (don’t even get me started on the whole UN Convention Against Torture thing), it also rankles me when people who have never stepped foot in my native country put themselves forward as experts on all things American and proceed to paint all Americans with the same ugly brush. Other people’s self-righteousness is just as irritating and misplaced as America’s obliviousness.

But anyway. What she said.