Well, Phil, most people have trouble seeing things clearly, because they think in symbols. Nations become symbolic in their minds. Races become symbolic in their minds. They forget that all individuals are unique and cannot be defined by those symbols. The hostile mobs you speak of were attacking someone who served as a momentarily available symbol of something else entirely, a symbol they were carrying in their minds of something that they were angry about. The same ridiculous thing happens when people hurl abuse at the members of a visiting football team, for heaven's sake, and that's equally absurd. American citizens destroyed Japanese trees in USA botanical gardens after Pearl Harbor. Stark insanity, but they were caught up in mental symbols. This is a problem everywhere. It causes non-Americans to misjudge Americans. It causes Americans to misjudge non-Americans. It causes blacks and whites in America to misjudge each other.

The only solutions I know are spiritual ones. Forgiveness, compassion, mercy, non-judgement of others. Political solutions will not be found, because politics deals with the use of raw power, not with compassion or understanding.

You said, "Your country (Canada) is run by multinational corporations, just as much as mine is. In Canada, they give you the illusion that you are being taken care of and that your hands are clean, but that's about the only difference."

Yeah. It's a real drag, isn't it? Matter of fact, the same multinationals that rule in the USA rule my country too, and I know it. I am well aware of the illusions that you refer to. I do not think our hands are clean.