HighlandPenguin

Hi All

Come next May, it will be 12 years since I moved to the US. Now more than ever I am truly struggling to be optimistic about the future of the US for myself, let alone for my wife and daughter. A whole host of issues are driving this feeling I have, including the lack of gun control, climate science denial, abuse of woman's rights, bigotry etc.....

Therefore I wanted to reach out to the BE community and find out amongst expats and Americans alike, if any of you feel the same way or if I am alone in how I feel? If there are others out there feeling the same way, are you also seriously considering turning your back on America and moving elsewhere? I am really interested if any of you are considering trying to move to places like Canada or back to Europe. In the last 4 years, my OH and I have tried to go back to Scotland, but those two attempts didn't work for us, but in hindsight I wish we had succeeded there. I am not saying these places are perfect, but I just feel that at least in these other places they are trying to do the right thing, unlike here in America.

Any advise and support will be welcome.

Cheers,

Highlandpenguin

scrubbedexpat091

If your in Kentucky as your profile say's, simply moving to a state that better reflects your beliefs would help.

California is far from climate science denying state, has gun control laws pretty close to what we have in Canada, can't say I ever saw much bigotry living there either and the state government and likely most who live there have no interest in taking away rights for women's issues, all in all it's a fairly progressive state.

Might be more of where you are specifically in the US, too many states with many variations in how they do things, even 2 states right next door can be polar opposites. AZ and CA are nothing alike, yet right next door.

WA seems fairly progressive as well, Oregon seems to be, but I have never been there and can't say for sure just based off media reports.

HighlandPenguin

Unfortunately I have already tried out that plan, moving to Seattle back in 2012 and was still saddened to see problems with gun control there. Not to mention, despite California's tougher gun control laws, the San Bernardino tragedy has happened.

To be honest, regardless of a Bernie or Hillary win in 2016, I have come to the conclusion the only thing that would change my mind on the gun control issue in the US, is if Americans agreed to a constitutional amendment where they no longer are guaranteed the right to bear arms as is the case in Canada and Britain.

This is why I feel the changes I would like to see in the US are unlikely to happen in mine or my daughter's lifetime and therefore why I am now finding my self setting my sights on Canada or Europe.

Guindalf

If you'll pardon me being blunt (it's the only way I know how to be!), your problems run a lot deeper that a lack of faith in America. All the points you think you're making are the kind of negative things you'll find anywhere and everywhere. If you were back in Scotland it would be the failure to break from England, the weather and how you can't find good haggis any more!

I strongly suggest you see your doctor and get some therapy. It soulds to me like you're starting to go into depression if you're not already there.

Talk to someone and don't look to strangers on the internet for help!

HighlandPenguin

Please #Guindalf!!! Don't make me laugh!. Sounds like you are one of those people who are in denial about the problems in the US!

Pulaski

I disagree. I Iike it here. I think you're spending too much time worrying about things you have no control over.

Nutmegger

I agree. It is what it is. You either accept it and get on with your life, while changing what it is within your power to change, or you leave. End of story. OP, what caused you to move here in the first place?

HighlandPenguin

#Nutmegger I moved to the US for my wife, after we met while she was doing a semester abroad in Glasgow back in 2002.

scrubbedexpat091

No gun control laws would have prevented San Bernardino, they would have found a way to obtain the guns. France and Australia both have gun control of some sort, and they still had loons go on a rampage.

Canada has gun control, and we had a loon go on a shooting spree at Parliament back in 2014 and a loon who also in 2014 went on a shooting spree in Moncton, New Brunswick killing 3 cops. (He went specifically after police in his rampage.)

The US has issues like anywhere else, but people here still have guns in Canada and it doesn't seem all that difficult to get guns legally if one so desires and passes the background checks and such, and Canada has it's own issues as well, just a smaller scale and of different sorts.

HighlandPenguin

#Pulaski you know you are probably right and I need to try focus on what I can change for my family and less on what I can't like the quote from Reinhold Niebuhr:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

moneypenny20

No we haven't. Not since Port Arthur in 1996 after which major changes were made to gun ownership/control.

lansbury

Is America perfect - no it isn't. Is anywhere else perfect - no they are not. Life is what you make it no matter where you are. I don't think my son and his family who live in the UK have any better future to look forward to then my step son and his family in the UK. Life isn't greener on the other side of the hill, just a different shade of green.

Geordie George

There was that loon in QLD t'other week that caused half of Brisbane to get shut down because he had a replica gun.

Man with replica gun caught 'training' in Rochedale

But we expect nothing less from QLD.

moneypenny20

Got to keep the security forces on their toes, they've got nothing else to do.

dc koop

I've never regretted moving to the US. I left the UK in the 1960s at a time of industrial strife, bad politics and strikes. I had intended to head for Australia but a couple of my army mates had decided to emigrate to Canada so I decided to keep them company.

I lived in Montreal, Quebec a majority French speaking city. I liked the city well enough, the restaurants, the nightclubs the good looking birds but the winters were long, hard and horrible and I was often laid off due to being in the construction industry which slowed down at that time of year. After having to make ends meet with menial jobs such as janitorial work I applied for a resident/work visa to the US and months later headed to California. There were plenty of jobs in the construction and defence industries and I soon found steady work. I later took a job with a large city and worked there for 40 years as a water treatment technician and retired with a very good pension.

I met my wife to be two years after arriving. She was from Minnesota and had fled Minnesota winters for life in the golden state.

I've been able to make return trips to the UK on several occasions over the years and happy to see that life in Britain has improved tremendously along with the standard of living.

I don't bother myself with the bad news and the bad things that sometimes happen. There's nowt I can do about it anyway. I've never been the victim of a crime and I live in a town where it's safe to walk around at any time of day or night..

The way I see it is that moving from one place to another in hopes of getting away from the things that get you down doesnt lead to anything you hoped for in the end. All you do when you move is exchange one set of dislikes and negatives for another