I spent half of 1995 at Dartmouth and the other half in France. The first three months of 1995 I was in Blois, France for the Language Study Abroad Program. The last three months of 1995 I was in Toulouse for the Foreign Study Program. Dividing my time between the two countries has broadened my perspective of American culture and politics.
After living in a country where most families eat dinner together, where homicides are the exception, not the rule, where black Americans are embraced as Americans, not second-class citizens, and where millions of people have joined together to support striking train workers, I began to question American culture and values. Am I truly proud of being an American? Are Americans truly the best? Or do we lack values?
During my six months in France, I compared first hand American fast food with French cuisine. Even though the younger French generations occasionally eat at McDonalds, French cuisine is a far cry from its American counterpart. Americans will have to come a long way to compete with a country that is opening culinary galleries so the younger generations will continue to appreciate French cuisine. The French government is trying to curb negative (American) influences. They might have a valid point. Something must be wrong in this country if the French can eat bigger meals, exercise less, and still look like toothpicks.
What really sets France apart from the U.S. is its ancient national spirit. While I was in Toulouse, I experienced first hand this spirit, and I realized that as a people, Americans need to support each other more, notwithstanding race, gender, ethnicity and religion.
Toulouse is a much larger city than Blois, and it is the second largest university city in the country. It was there that I finally began to understand the French spirit and how it differs from the American one. There were several times when I left our secluded classroom and walked through the center of town into a mass of demonstrating students or government workers. Police officers had blocked off the streets so that the demonstrators would not be hit by cars. University students were unhappy because they had poor teachers, poor facilities and not enough chairs in the classrooms. The new government of Jacques Chirac (who had replaced the recently deceased Francois Mitterrand earlier this year) was challenging the system of social security in order to meet the requirements for the new European currency, so workers were dissatisfied. Many times I was forced to walk an hour to class as a result of the strikes, but, instead of being annoyed, I was in awe of the movements.
Two weeks before the end of the FSP program the nationwide general strike began. This strike continued for three weeks, and it was reminiscent of the large, nationwide French strike which occurred in 1968. First the train workers refused to go to their jobs. The demonstrations increased in Toulouse. Other government workers were threatening to go on strike in support of the train workers. Because the trains weren't running I was searching frantically for a means to get to Paris, but I was enthralled by the national French spirit.
The government was forced to shut down. Paris became one huge traffic jam, and those who were not striking were forced to walk or rollerblade to work. The workers refused to back down until Chirac's government had made some concessions or until the prime minister, Alain Juppe, resigned.
I admire the unity of spirit which seems to be lacking here in America. Why haven't Americans come together in mass to protest the government shutdowns? Why haven't Americans come together to protest the horrible treatment of the poor or the institutionalized racism? I think that the Million Man March was a good start in promoting a healthy, national spirit in America, but it is important that all Americans try to begin to support each other.
