So you think you know us

[Sailor Steve]

I was born into a racist society (Dallas, Texas in the 1950s) and grew up hearing bad things about people of color. I also grew up in the wake of World War 2 and saw and read a lot of bad things about Germans ("They're all Nazis"). It was also the time of the Cold War, so of course all Russians are Communists and therefore evil (are even all Communists "evil"?)

My experience, however, is that people are people. There are ones who will step on anybody to achieve whatever goals they have at the moment, ones who will enslave others because they feel superior, or inferior, or just because they can do it. But by and large people just want to get along and make their lives better. I've met people from all over the world, and for the most part I've liked them, and vice versa. Anybody I don't like is because I don't like them personally as individuals.

And the Russian government? I don't trust any government, including my own. I've read what other people have had to say about the Russian government over the years, but I don't know anything really, so I can't say anything one way or the other.