We were chatting to an English Star Trek fan the other day, who commented of the Next Generation series, which began in 1987:
"I always called Jean-Luc Picard 'Jim Luck Picard'- he was so English, sitting there with his cup and saucer, coolly and calmly dealing with crises."
But the character, who seemed thoroughly English to us too, and was played by the English actor Patrick Stewart, was not English. The show's writers gave him a French name and a French background.
Why the fuck was that? Why is it that on American television and in American films the English are usually represented by shifty, untrustworthy characters and massive rewritings of history? Anybody for Mel bigot Gibson in Braveheart?
America has so many English influences - in its political system and culture - yet we are ignored or subjected to character assasination by its media. Meanwhile, plastic Irish and Scots Americans wave flags and foam at the mouth on St Patrick's Day and "Tartan" Day.
Seems like home, doesn't it?
God Bless America? How about fucking grow up, America? It's time we started speaking up for ourselves - and we don't mean as British - we mean as English!!
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