I feel like the topic of pride is something that has come up here again and again. In my opinion, I do not feel like pride is something that is that should be suppressed, given that it's not used to snub the other person or to make everyone else feel bad. There is pride in one's achievements, history, and heritage. Saying that you're glad to be who you are, and where you're from is not a bad thing, it can be a driving force to make your world a better place, in return gives you pride in the fact that you have done something beneficial to someone other than yourself. But there is also the "dirty" pride, the kind that you say to lift yourself higher than the rest so you may shine with light of a thousand stars and that you bathe in a shower of a thousand kisses. And between those two kinds of pride is a very fine line.

Am I proud to be an American? Yes, yes I am. Much in the same way I am proud to be from New Jersey (yeah take that! "Armpit of America," pffff, give me a break...). I'm proud of the people that live here, and though we can do better, I think overall it's a nice place and I think you should visit sometime.

JustAnotherGuy had a very good point though, we need to be careful about not labeling ourselves to avoid fencing ourselves and further dividing the world. I too have noticed that, especially among my peers, that we like to keep ourselves in little groups of like-minded people. Now, I think that it's just a high school thing because many adults and teachers have pointed this out, but I can't be sure because I still need to mature and see the world for myself. I sometimes wish I was surrounded by like-minded people all the time. Thinking would be much easier (because there is none) and my opinion would always be repeated back to me, reassuring myself that I am always right. But no, I must always challenge my thought process and I must always listen to others to see their opinion and then form my own from my beliefs and morals. Because believe me, both extremes in my school are unbearable, so I refuse to belong to either even if I used to.

So as a wise sailor once said "I yam, what I yam" and that's the philosophy I follow. I'm proud of who I am, what I do, and what I stand for. I don't belong to any group (besides the label of "typewriter-lover"). If you don't like me, well, then you can go... please reconsider because I want to be your friend. 

ztyper wrote:

Boy I wrote a lot...

One more thing I wanted to say, is that I've actually learned a lot about the people of this forum. It's very interesting to see the thoughts and feelings of people from around the world and that we're all open-minded enough to discuss such a charged topic. Perhaps there's a connection between typewriters, and the kinds of people that use them...

Well, I would keep "from around the world" in Perspective. Largest representation here is from the US, followed by Canada, England and Australia. I think we could say "from around the former British dominions". 

I just ordered a typewriter from Kazakhstan, by the way: made in Sarajevo, Cyrillic keyboard, lived  in Kazakhstan, hopefully on its way to NYC on a typewriter visa backed by the full good faith of eBay. Besides exotic locale seller had feedback rating of "3". But it was not much money, I have a hunch it will get here OK, and since eBay backs the sale at most I might be out time and trouble. But what a traveled typewriter.

Did you know that Astana, capital city of Kazakhstan, is the second coldest capital on the planet? I thought not. I think there is a lot we don't know about Kazakhstan! 

But on this topic since all have said "this is very dangerous, but..." and then delivered a full soapbox screed with flying fingers I think I will have to follow suit, but only after a stiff glass of scotch because I just cannot write really good screeds with lots of exclamation points and asterisks stone sober. 

As far as I know, the only exotic typewriter I own is a Litton Royal 200 made in Japan... I would love a typewriter from, say, India. I know India had its own typewriter manufacturer and not much is known to us Westerners, but I would love to own one anyways. It'd be pretty rad to own a Korean typewriter too. I know they're out there, I'm just not sure where...

I've been told that I don't sound like an American by someone in the U.K.  I asked what an American sounds like but they couldn't tell me.

I was actually thinking about a typewriter that can type in Korean. I'm not sure how the Korean language is written, but I assume it's more like Japanese in which it has certain symbols for syllables unlike Chinese which has specific characters for different meanings.

But I never knew that there were Korean-made exports that were Japanese brands that were under the Litton name. That seems pretty cool to me.