Last time I was in the US I was in Hawaii in January 2009. Obama was being inaugurated and because of time zones I had to get up early to watch it. Figured it was worth getting up for because it was kinda historical. So I was in the common area of the hostel where the TV was and there were four other people in the room, two women sitting up front, close to the TV, excited about the Obama being inaugurated. And there was a dude at the back of the room cursing and swearing because the stock market was dropping.

When the speech was done, we got to talking. The two women excited about the inauguration were Canadian. The guy at the back of the room angry at Obama because of the stock market (he’s literally being inaugurated, he hadn’t done anything yet) was American.

Just felt like there was something wrong with that country then and just didn’t feel like going back there again. Then Trump came along and he did nothing but reinforce that feeling. Had some small hope they might be able to get past their greed, ignorance, and racism when Biden got in, but that just didn’t happen.

Haven’t gone there in 16 years, and sure as hell not going there now.