AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Safe travel usa website11/19/2023 ![]() ![]() A friend in Chicago friend told me how two visitors from France wanted to go to Disney for the weekend. Most visitors just don’t understand how vast the US is until they arrive. ![]() The country is huge!! A lot of visitors fail to understand that. You could drive for 15 hours straight, going 65 mph, and still be in the same state (you could easily do this in Alaska, California, and Texas). It’s larger than Europe (the sovereign states not the continent) and Australia. There’s no reason to avoid visiting here - even if the airport security makes it more of a hassle and, well, our political landscape is less than ideal.įirst, the United States is very big and very, very diverse. When these incidents and attitudes are projected around the world in conjunction with ongoing political strife, it creates the perception of the United States as a dangerous and unwelcoming place.īut, just like Europe, overall the United States is safe to visit. We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, hate crimes are at their highest levels in over a decade, and gun-related deaths are only increasing. I won’t deny the statistics: The US has the highest rate of death by guns in the developed world, and more than double the gun ownership rates than Yemen, a country that has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014. How much are those flights to Europe, honey?” Potential travelers to the US see all this media buzz and think, “Maybe the United States isn’t the safe and welcoming country we thought it was. In their news, they hear about our mass shootings and gun violence, reports of police brutality toward minorities, and movements like Black Lives Matter and Stop AAPI Hate that highlight racially motivated violence, and wonder if they are welcome. ![]() After all, just like how we in the United States have a perception that the rest of the world is unsafe and unwelcoming, so too the rest of the world has that perception of the United States. When most people ask me this question, I feel they are really asking me two things: (1) Does gun violence happen so often I should worry about being shot? and (2) Will everyone hate me because I’m a foreigner (or, especially, a non-white foreigner)? So let’s turn the tables on my post and ask: But I have thought about this question before - especially since 45% of the people who read this website are outside the United States. Last Updated: 10/18/22 | October 18th, 2022Īfter I wrote an article about why, despite what you see in the news, Europe is safe to visit, Someone asked (with a degree of snark) if I would write a similar article about the United States too?Īs an American writing for a mostly American audience, I tend to write mostly about what’s beyond our shores. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |