"Made in USA" internet messages can provide powerful and inexpensive ammunition for turning global citizens against our nation. It's a no-brainer that American security is linked with our ability to inspire allies. In the web world of today, however, the click of a mouse can severely impact our image in other countries. "Think before you click 'Forward'!" is rapidly becoming today's version of "Loose lips sink ships!"
Combat troops whose misbehaviors were uploaded onto the internet learned this lesson the hard way. Meanwhile, everyday Americans still think nothing of the potential negative consequences of e-mails they presume are only going to friends. These messages often portray the U.S. as a mean-spirited, hypocritical, misogynistic, warmongering, crusader country, just for starters.
For instance, a forwarded e-mail clip of a TV newscast called "Love it or leave it" featured an angry man cutting down the flags above a small Latino U.S. business because the Mexican flag was hoisted above "Old Glory." The man then faced the news camera, declared himself an American veteran, brandished a U.S. Army knife, and called for a fight.
It is disappointing anyone would consider such a display of unnecessary aggression as a source of pride. What is completely overlooked, however, is the potential for harm to national interests. While many Americans boastfully forward these so-called patriotic messages to their friends, others unfriendly to the USA can use these same communications to jeopardize international good will, threaten our security, and lose hearts and minds around the globe.
When I showed this flag-cutting clip to a woman from Latin America she exclaimed, "That's crazy! Some "cholos" who don't know any better might take it as an excuse to go after this guy with their own knives." She further explained that while she had been an American citizen for years, she didn't know it was against the law to fly another country's flag above the American flag. The business owner in the newscast and many others might not know either. We both wondered why the man didn't just knock on the door of the business and politely ask the owner to switch the flags around or contact the police about it.
A scene like this could also negatively stereotype my fellow veterans. Someone watching this clip who had never been to the U.S. would likely see this man as a provocative, vigilante bully asking for trouble. They might conclude that Americans are a violent and arrogant people... especially American veterans. They wouldn't know that if this individual showed up at a Veterans Administration hospital waving a knife around like that he would probably be placed on a mental health observation hold to assess his risk in terms of harm to himself or others.
Another e-mail sent to me from a member of my church that linked words and pictures depicting nationalism, English only, Jesus, and troop caskets draped in American flags left me wondering how Jesus would respond to this message? He wasn't an American (or a Christian), did not speak English, blessed peacemakers, and promoted loving enemies. One e-mail photo forwarded to me compared a horse's behind to an American female political candidate. It reminded me of what a translator once told me about how many Arabic expressions compared women to camels. When Americans similarly degrade women, how are we any different?
The world is watching us and we are sending loud and clear statements about what kind of a nation we are. We've already made strong impressions regarding torture, rendition, the rule of law, and the environment with our global communiqués. Our troubled celebrities no doubt also help to fuel Muslim extremist's claims that American infidels lack moral and family values.
Aren't Americans a humble, generous, honorable, kind, and compassionate people? Don't we appreciate the capacity created by our diverse immigrant and minority populations? Don't we realize how it is in our own self-interest to have friends on every street around the globe? Then why aren't we making a point of providing more positive international impressions?
I do love my country! I also think it is critical we start seeing other people...and especially how they see us. The messages we send need to express our freedom to show respect for other cultures, inspire the receivers, and honor noble values. If we do not strive for a more heartening reaction to our international statements, our own communications may become the "torpedoes" that sink our "ship" before we know what hit U.S.
Colleen Turner, Ph.D. is an executive coach, management trainer, consultant, and speaker who focuses on transformational communications. She is a retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who has designed and evaluated terrorist defense scenarios and conducted research on "Best Practices for Inspiring Pro-American Sentiment - Exploring Methods of American Masters for Winning Hearts and Minds Around the Globe": See University of Southern California, USC Center on Public Diplomacy -- http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/pdfs/turner.pdf. She served as Chief of Strategic Communications for the Iraq-Afghanistan Joint Interagency Transition Planning Group in 2006 and as a Senior Analyst and Deputy of the Joint-Cross Service Team of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC). In the sport of volleyball, she was a member of the USA team and her jersey was retired at UCLA where she obtained her Ph.D. in Social Welfare.
Your country had 20 million new residents. What other nation on earth has absorbed so many people from another nation with so little resistance as the USA? What's not to love? Twenty million capitalists taking advantage of everthing Americans have fought for.
The Vietnam Veteran in Reno, NV, who used his Army issued knife to cut down the defiled American Flag, felt like he was rescuing that flag, a symbol he fought for with that knife. Like many of our vets who our government used and abused, there are no food stamps, medical, housing, education or jobs. My heart goes out to that vet. He LOVES OUR country and I LOVE him for giving a damn.
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Jeanette Doney (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 304 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 11:44:40 AM
there are those 120 murders by Iraq vets who returned home so damaged that they became killers in America.
I agree with Colleen. We need to criticize the behaviors, decisions and actions of America, its lawmakers and people of power, but if we truly love America, we should act civilly. Read Martin Luther King: Letter From a Birmingham Jail 1963 and see an example of a man with great justification for anger and indignance-- and see how he thought through his actions.
Brute, thug action is not the answer. Tough, principled, determined words and action are.
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Rob Kall (869 articles, 4016 quicklinks, 345 diaries, 1847 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 12:21:18 PM
According to an Alternet and CBS report, we have 120 Iraq Vets returning home to commit suicide eah week!!
And let's not forget those who join the military because there are no jobs that pay wages for an American life style in the USA.
I don't blame the USA. Americans are programed 24-7. I blame the elitist controlled multinational murderous UN NWO which makes victims of all people loving their sovreign nations, and believing their Constitutions will protect them, including, and despite us and our protests, elections, and work.
Did you see my UN Agenda 21 post? The world is being duped Rob.
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Jeanette Doney (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 304 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 1:16:18 PM
While I normally do not react like this I think you need to get a grip on the reality of the world around you and put away the rose colored glasses.
While every American loves America, allot of Americans have had enough of the BS rammed down our throats.I say this as a man whose father was 30 plus years’ military, sister reenlisted at age 47, and whose niece is in Iraq.
In case you have not figured it out, our image is sh*t around the world because of how we conduct ourselves.We have no morals or ethics, period.It is all about the mighty dollar!
Family values are a joke as 86% (real figure of divorce of marriages from 1985 forward) of all marriages end in divorce, 25 million kids are removed from one parent each and every year and billboards say “Life is short, Have an Affair” as if that will make you “feel” better.The one thing you better understand is that the family courts and courts in general, are there for one purpose and one purpose only, TO GENERATE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES!Trust me on this; I have just finished a book on my 16 year journey through hell with the “system”.
This country also tortures and abuses its own people and I have that proof.We have become everything we are supposed to stand against because people march blindly to our leaders.
Patriotism is a great thing, but to blindly believe propaganda and not see it as propaganda is stupidity.
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Michael Morris (18 articles, 0 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 302 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 12:03:32 PM
Love is the third abused word in the USA, right after Death and Jesus. It is as if all Americans are capable of love which is by definition ridiculous: love is one of the most complex emotions; Americans( whites in particular) are of German/Swedish/Anglo origin which are well-known as the Least emotional people in the Humankind. In fact quite an opposite is true- Americans are not much capable of deep emotions and that's why they vehemently try to create surrogates. The Loving your country is a surrogate too because you cannot do it. You can love certain people, animals, even plants but not the country. You love the environment but when it changes you cannot love the 'USA' as an abstract entiity. What that means is that each of us loves his/her own 'USA'. I would advise to look in the mirror and say the following mantra:
Americans are the same as everyone else. I am no better than anyone on the planet. We here must love and help honest people and prevent the dishonest people from taking over. We MUST leave other people alone. We must be humble. We must first to learn to respect each other before wwe start loving others to death.
See, I used both words as a true American:)
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Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3605 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 2:10:59 PM
With what has been done in the nation's name: genocide, murder, rape, torture, bombing of densely populated cities, I don't think the average American hater has to reach to American media renditions of flag fights. All they need to to to form an angry thought is to look at what used to be viable, 5,000 year old cities.
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M. Davis (48 articles, 2 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 154 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 2:46:18 PM
I am not sure how some of the comments relate to my intended message or imply a lack of compassion for vets, promotion of propaganda, or the need to get a grip. I used to ignore e-mails like the ones I am referring to in my article until I realized that by doing so, I was not being a part of the solution. I am addressing a gap in the understanding of everyday Americans regarding how they may be promoting negative images of the USA, and in doing so, potentially jeopardizing our own security. Granted, it is a small, simple, and humble contribution. My hope is that it will help serve to raise awareness.
Lovingly Yours, CT
(\o/)
/_\
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Colleen Turner (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 6 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 2:46:48 PM
The one thing you did say that you have stopped the practice of ingoring comments like min put you on the right path.
What you missed is that OUR SECURITY is an illusion until issues are addressed by the will of the people and not the will of the president. Example: Illegals in the country, port security, not killing 600,000 men women and children in the name of cheap oil.
The ONLY time in this countrys history that change has happened is when forced or when embarrassed. While we maybe helping the enemy, this country is so dysfunctional that they don't need any help.
Open and honest communication hearing ALL points is the only why this country can get back on track. No one persons ideas work for the many. (Did you hear that King Bush)
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Michael Morris (18 articles, 0 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 302 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 3:24:30 PM
I don't believe it is the content so much as the context and delivery. The same can be said for how we *Americans* interact with eachother...online in particularly.
The Internet has been a disservice, not in that it allows us to transfer information - good or bad with a click, but in the fact we do not interact the same way we would in a face to face situation. If we did, bar room brawls and street fights would be minor in comparison to what would occur.
As sad as it is, we have lost a piece of our humanity and a lot of our compassion for one another as HUMAN BEINGS.
That being said, why would you, a PhD who according to your bio specializes in communicatiom, ever suggest hiding truths?
Just because we have a nasty uncle hiding in the barn doesn't mean we don't need/have to acknowledge and account for him.
*And truly, I do not mean this in any ugly way. There is no emoticon or words that could ever convey the real tone of a communique online.
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Cheri Roberts (16 articles, 15 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 435 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 2:48:04 PM
Thank you very much for your comments.I love how internet blogs enable instant feedback, a key to effective communications.
I am not suggesting better e-mail cognizance will provide a comprehensive security solution nor am I advocating any truths be hidden.I am encouraging people to think about the impact of their e-messages and become aware of what they may not realize they are transmitting….especially in terms of kind-heartedness or a lack thereof.When I address this with people, most of them are grateful because they hadn’t thought about it before in this way.
From the perspective of international strategic communications, I’ve become keenly aware of how American messages can be viewed by international audiences.Too few Americans seem able to grasp (or care) what we look like from outside of our borders. Even fewer seem to realize the link to our own security.
For now, I am grateful to have achieved a modicum of understanding with any readers. Given the difficulty of achieving one's desired intentions with any communication, I feel quite honored to have been declared “almost right.”
In Gratitude,
CT
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Colleen Turner (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 6 comments)
on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 6:00:46 PM
I have received so many of these chain e-mails that you speak about, a large majority from my realitives from Wyoming, and the first thing that usually goes through my mind is "Are you serious?", and then I stop and consider the source. I left the Heartland long ago and have pursued a life aimed at the contemplation of the human condition, and since I am an American, very patriotic, and a student of all things psychological, a lot of my contemplation is about this very issue.
The people who automatically forward these e-mails without thought to what image they might present to an outsider are the same people who say that they think torture is horrible on the one hand, but if it's used to save American lives, which we all know are far more valuable than, say....Arab lives, that is completely fine on the other hand. Too many episodes of "24" if you ask me. The 'lamestream' media has done a splendid job of brainwashing the population into mindless couch potatos who tend to get their opinions from guys like Bill O'Reilly. Public schools no longer teach students about the workings of our govt. or just how the Constitution works. I'm still attending college, and it floors me every time I hear a young student say they don't understand what all the fuss over Bush's actions is about, "the president can do whatever he wants!",or that the moon landings were staged on a set in Hollywood. My point is that unfortunately, you are dealing with a group of well-meaning people who are truly ignorant of how things really are.
As for the angry vet who cut down the flag, I saw that incident early on in it's travels around the internet, and what has been lost in the baggage is that the Mexican business owner improperly flying the flags had been instructed as to the correct procedure and refused to comply. Only after the refusal to comply did the vet take things into his own hands.
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Rick Mason (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 26 comments)
on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 11:40:46 AM
11 comments
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