News Flash: America Is Resistant to Change

CNN International news anchor Monita Rajpal made the comment the other day that Americans are very resistant to change. She sighted as proof "the long time it took them to elect a black man as president."

I almost fell off my chair. I think we're the people most open to change on the planet. Change is part of the national character. We're all immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, easily the biggest change an individual can make in his or her life.

We also have changed our country and the planet, building great cities where none existed and transforming an agricultural nation to an urban powerhouse.

We ended slavery, fighting a civil war to accomplish it, and reshaped our world. We change presidents and governor and congresses regularly and without bloodshed.

We also created, developed and are the driving force behind the internet that shapes modern life for people around the world.

That isn't to say all Americans are whirlwinds of transformation. Most of us are creatures of habit and comfortable with the familiar but that's true of all people. The British cling to the Pound Sterling, the Nigerians cling to tribal loyalties that have torn their country apart (Biafra is more than a memory) and the Chinese cling to a shadow of communism, providing the population with the illusion of continuity while providing the government with the tools to suppress individual freedom.

I don't see Americans as more resistant to change than other peoples. In fact I think we're more comfortable with change than anyone else and Obama's election proves it.

So why did Rajpal say what she did? Maybe she spoke off the top of her head without thinking (after all, she is a news dweeb). Maybe she's biased against Americans and really means it. Or maybe she knows something I don't--but I think she's simply wrong.