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I knew Lavoni Kidd in the 80's and 90's and know him as nothing more than a stand up guy. I played sports against him from the 7th grade on through high school. Imagine my surprise when I did a random search and this article came up. Lavoni and I would hit each other as hard as we could during a football game intent on causing bodily harm to each other but at the end of the game or at the end of the track meet we would be laughing and having a grand time. I know people change, sometimes for the worst but I really don't see Lavoni as anything more than a deeply impassioned and religious person. I've travelled and lived around the world and I've tasted many religions and cultures. I've sat and dined with Muslims and Jews at their tables in their respective countries. I've prayed with Buddhist Monks in Tibet and Thailand and walked in the footsteps of Jesus Christ through the streets of Jerusalem. I've seen people that are so into their religion like Kidd. Hell, you don't even have to go far to witness that kind of religious fervor. Just turn on the Trinity Channel or any of those other B.S. Church Channels that ask you to send in money for salvation. Go to a local AA meeting or 12 step meeting. You'll meet people that "find God" to help them cope. In reading some of these comments and replies on this site and a lot of sites to be quite honest. The thing I see when reading these comments are stupid people who have never left the country or their back yard for that matter. Americans are the joke of the world. Sure we're a GLOBAL SUPER POWER, but we're likened to the stupid, ignorant, bumbling school yard bully compared to the smarter kids that receive our afternoon recess wrath. During my travels, it was always the loud, crass, ignorant Americans who disturbed my reverie in the Louvre or had to be thrown out of my friend's bar in Ibiza. Who spilled the wine and laughed about it at the adjoining table in Caprese, Italy. I'm a proud American, a college educated Asian American who has served in the military, Army. My college educated father was in the Army and both of my college educated Grandfathers were in the Army. My allegiance to this country cannot be questioned. But I think that Americans should learn that there are other things out there than what's on TV. I believe that every US high school student should either: a)travel abroad for a year or b) work in the service industry. American children grow up thinking that the world owes them something. That the world revolves around them and by travelling abroad they get a taste of the world and of boundaries beyond their neighborhoods or where Grandma lives. And I don't mean those all-inclusive Mexico trips that parents dole out to graduating high school seniors. I mean traveling. In a small group, even alone. A person finds themself when they are thousands of miles from their friends and family and in a country where they have to be self-sufficient. Self-introspection, it's a beautiful thing. The Sabrina factor. The Audrey Hepburn one, not the Julia Ormond debacle. By working in the service industry, they learn humility. To be able to work with people and that what they want isn't always what they get. Politeness and tact are crucial in this world and it's amazing how many people don't have those kindergarten skills.

Did it ever occur to you to ponder:

1) If we are such foolish boors, why everyone seems to be using the stuff that we invented, in stead of using their own stuff that they invented themselves?

2) If we are such uncultured ignoramuses, how it is that an the effin McDonalds on the Champs Elysee, McDonalds fer chissakes, does an outrageous amount of business?

3) If we are hated and despised, why is it that I can hear american "oldies" at the Beer bashes my Deutsche relatives have in Hereford, rap on the streets of London, Dean Martin songs in Rome, and bluegrass in Tel Aviv? Why is it that African kids are wearing Nike Air Jordan T-Shirts? Why is it that the black market in american videos is thriving in Iran?

4) And finally, if we are all so insufferably shallow, WTF are you still doing living in this horrible country with of as us ignorant rednecks? Maybe an ancient spiritual place like Tibet or Central China is more your speed.

Oh, that's right. Your Great-Grandfathers sweated blood to get the hell outta their in the first place, so that you could have the privelige of discussing just how f'ed up your homeland is without going to jail.

And if your buddy was helping some of the deeply spiritual maniacs that get hard-ons thinking about flying planes into buildings about their 72 raisins, he can rot in a 6x10 for a few decades. If he "did'nt know what he was doing" he'll have a few years to figure it out...