US population hits 300 million, hmmm...

I logon this morning, open my Google homepage, and almost every news service whose RSS feed I subscribe to is dominated by the story of the US population hitting 300 million. Worse than that though, their frontpages are littered with commentary on what this means for the average American family.

I'm not anti-american, but all this garbage surrounding the US population hitting 300 million seems a little over the top, and frankly I think some of these people need to wake up to themselves. Why on earth would anybody feel threatened by the increasing number of black or hispanic people in the US, you know we're not talking about aliens with scales and slobbering mouths, we're talking about people, just like you and I, people who want opportunities and education for their kids, just like us.

Maybe its because I was brought up in South Africa and have spent my life surrounded by people with different skin color, or who speak a different language, perhaps even have a different religion, or maybe they just have more sense of local family and community, any which way you look at it, I feel like I can cope with people who aren't like me.

What I can't cope with is when the major news services tout the prejudices of a bunch of misguided Americans whose outlook is so limited they can only see the differences between people. Let me say, if you believe some of the stories coming out of the US, white America is fast becoming a minority in their own country - what a load of crap, it isn't just their country, they share it with 100 million other Americans.

Fortunately, those of us who aren't US citizens, or don't actually live in the States, aren't terribly concerned about the US population hitting 300 million, why would we be? But to hear it told on every major news service, this is the story of the moment. I know the Americans have done a lot of good things, they are after all champions of democracy, but we seriously need another major world power (my pick is the EU) to act as counter-weight to the US. At least then our news services might be a little less partial to American centric stories.