"Over America" Review Filled with Politics

[TheRealBob]

I find it somewhat ironic that we are forbidden from talking about politics in the forums on this site, yet the official site review of Over America by Lindsay Maye is loaded with them:

The chief deficit of this title lies squarely in the narration. The puffy-chested voice of Tom Skerritt presides over the playback, spouting an atrocious blend of "God bless the U.S.A." clichés and platitudes, which only help to further the current national paradigm of how supposedly "great" this country is, with a rich history and a bright future.

I haven't seen this title, and maybe I too would find it excessively and falsely patriotic, but I think that could be noted in the review without the reviewer having to trot out their opinion that this country is only "supposedly" great, and apparently without a rich history or a bright future.

Unbelievably, the reviewer takes to task a title that apparently consists of flyovers of scenic sites for not addressing slavery and other dark areas of our (non-rich) history:

The problem is, of course, that this script is ironically disrespectful of U.S. history; it does not have the decency to acknowledge the nation's true legacy, however dark it may be. A brief mention of the conflicts that "pioneers" caused the "American Indians" in the Midwest chapter is noted, but not expanded upon. Slavery is ignored altogether - perhaps that is why there is no coverage of the southeast U.S. on this disc. The influence and legacy of the Spaniards is highly downplayed, as well. Names of locations in California, Texas, and the Southwest chapters are pronounced in an anglicized manner, abbreviated (Los Angeles is referred to as "L.A."), or just not spoken altogether.

The review is permeated with sputtering about how it is improper to called the USA "America". Just one example:

Ultimately, the most problematic feature of the series is the use of the word "America" to refer to the United States. America refers collectively to North, Central, and South; an entire land mass spanning its own hemisphere. Its colloquial use as a term for the United States is incorrect at best, and worryingly jingoistic at worst. The power of words helps push along the aforementioned paradigm of the country, aiding to give its populace a myopic view of the planet.

Yes, next time you're singing "America, the Beautiful", keep in mind that you're being "incorrect at best, and worryingly jingoistic at worst".

The fact is that only in certain quarters does the term "America" for the United States cause such concern. It is an accepted term almost everywhere, and from the context it is very clear in almost every situation what the term means. Most other countries call us "America". The continents are called "North America" and "South America". Very rarely, if ever, are the continents referred to together as "America". I'm not even sure if that is correct (as opposed to saying "North and South America" or "the Americas"). Virtually nobody would say, "I'm in America" if they were in Mexico City or Brazil.

Yes, there is a group that gets worked up about this, but I think it's a bit manufactured. There are many other situations where a smaller geographical area shares the same name as the larger geographical area of which they are a part, and nobody gets bent out of shape about them. And what is the alleged crime anyway? That someone outside of the USA in North or South America doesn't have a one-word term to describe the two-continent group they're in without being ambiguous about it due to our sinister co-opting of the word "America"? Oh, the humanity!

The use of "America" to refer to the U.S. in an official production as this is especially unacceptable. Even if this series' purpose is more for entertainment than education, proper terminology should always be utilized. We are not America. We are merely one part of a whole.

Using the term "America" to refer to the United States in a context where it is completely unambiguous it not quite the hate crime this reviewer makes it out to be.

Perhaps someone with less baggage should have been assigned this review.