Re: OT Caution!! IRA funding (was: English word order and bumper stickers)

Thomas R. Wier wrote:

>Roger Mills wrote:
>
>
>>>The word "America", in this context, was almost universally taken
>>>by Americans to mean "the American government", whereas it was
>>>almost universally taken by non-Americans to mean "the American
>>>populace".
>>>
>>>
>>Well, as you see, I fall into the first category; I'm truly
>>surprised at the second-- everything one hears, even from the Arab
>>world nowadays, certainly suggests to me that non-Americans are
>>quite capable of distinguishing the two, indeed eager to do so.
>>
>>
>
>In my personal experience, I cannot agree with this second claim.
>I mentioned recently my experience in Germany of being blamed for
>the firebombings during WWII.  I was walking through central Frankfurt
>with some people from the conference, and one German mentioned that
>he thought downtown Frankfurt was rather ugly.  I responded that
>that's because of the bombing (which is true, since extremely little
>survived it).
>

Blamed?  Judging from your story, I wouldn't think so.  I'd use 'you' to
refer a country of which the person I was talking to belonged.  Taking
personal offence at it is nonsense.  And even if he was blaming you,
that can scarcely generalise non-Americans.