The US is not the sum of America parts

THANKS to Joyce Anderson Gleasure (Letters, April 26) for correcting me on my geographic illiteracy as to the whereabouts of America.

In my ignorance I didn’t understand how Hugo Chavez, being from the southern part of the continent, is precluded from being called American nor did I comprehend how Castro’s Cuba is suddenly left abandoned in the wilderness of a hemisphere and is no longer part of the American continent.

It’s not clear if Joyce also relegates the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico to the same fate, or Hawaii with implications for Mr Obama. How about Nantucket? And, for God’s sake, what are we going to do about Manhattan if islands don’t qualify as part of continents.

Does it mean that we Irish, the British, Japanese and the dozens of other island states suddenly find ourselves orphaned without a continent to call our own?

The United States is the most powerful nation in history. United States-ers, (“North Americans” isn’t precise either and it peeves off the Canadians and Mexicans) have dominated the name “American” and made it their own. Do they wish to do the same to the entire continent? United States-ers have been at war almost continuously since the nation’s inception in 1783 and have constantly made military and clandestine incursions into almost every neighbouring country. With more than 850 military bases in 150 countries, being a United States-er means never having to apologise, it means being able to write off “collateral damage” as an unavoidable hazard of engagement, it means justifying the use of cluster bombs, napalm, Agent Orange, of running camps like Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib and still retain a lofty morality and self-righteous tenets.

My little brain can’t come to terms with Ms Anderson Gleasure’s logic or definitions so I’m sticking to using “American” for those who come from the continent with individual country titles for more precise locations. United States-ers is a bit longwinded, even for me, so we could shorten it to US-ers and to put that in joined-up writing.

Patrick Dolan

Pearse Street

Kinsale

Co Cork