Thank you for your post, Miss Z! It is always welcome, and good to hear the viewpoints of people from somewhere else.

Do not let any single American poster represent our whole country in your mind, please. We are as varied as can be - even though politicians talk about "red states" and "Blue states" at election time, each and every state contains people of every political stripe - our states, indeed our country - is more plaid than solid-colored.

And of course, we all value our freedom of expression - even when it leads to disagreements.

And here on Pet Talk, I hope we can always be civil even in our disagreements, as well. Your post was carefully and thoughtfully written, and I applaud that!

By the way, I had a great-great Aunt Emma, who emmigrated here from England with her sister - my great-great-grandmother, when they were young women and to the end of her life told everyone she hated it here, and wanted to go back to England, but never did. I never met her, she died before I was born, but whenever I was showing older generations pictures I found cleaning my Great Aunt Bertha's house out, to a person, each would say "Oh, that's Aunt Emma, she hated it here, and wanted to go back!" and that's pretty much all I know about her!