As a potential tourist or traveller (I am not to be fair), I wouldn't risk travelling to the US. I'm not sure if there are actual tourists who feel the same, but I'm sure there are other avoiding the US.
Lived in the U.S. for 29 years and only been patted down or searched by police a handful of times while entering a Govt building or a Concert.
I agree issues need to be addressed but it's not a police state. The media likes to portray it differently.
As for places to visit, where to start! Grand Canyon, White Sands, Las Vegas, LA, Appalachian Trail, Space Coast, Yosemite, San Francisco, Oregon, Savannah, DC, Key West, Texas.... shit the list goes on... now that I think of it the scale of the country and being able to drive everywhere is simply breathtaking, I have traveled thru more of the US than most Americans I spoke to and to be honest yee guys have a great country populated by mostly friendly and nice people.
Yes I realize there must be exceptions, but I never got into any trouble travelling the breath and length of the US, and would recommend it to anyone, hell I be back in a few months for more :)
I've worked for foreign companies whose workers would come over for 6-12 months and would enjoy themselves here greatly. Plus, like any tech worker, I work with a lot of H1Bs and first generation immigrants who have very little negative to say about the US and are also quite happy with things. Anecdotal, I know, but so is what you're reading here and seeing in your media.
Anyways, I'm biased (obviously), and have probably written more than anyone cared to read, but I'd still recommend visiting someday. Avoid the urban centers (they don't differ much) and visit our national parks. Places like Yosemite [0] and the Grand Canyon [1] are breathtaking. For some of my former colleagues, just visiting places like Idaho or Utah, where they could be miles and miles away from the nearest person, was enjoyable, as that was something they could never experience back home (and those states are beautiful as well). And if you want to be really alone, visit Alaska.
[0] http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm [1] http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm
If we don't fix that stuff, it will be China's world sooner, while they are still a one-party authoritarian state, rather than later, to give their middle class time to express their political discontents.
And on top all that, hitting the update button multiple times because it didn't apparently do anything and then finding you have three copies of your post is a leading cause of desperate people turning to needle drugs.
I wasn't talking about how great the nation is. I was discussing how it's a nice place to visit. It's like you read some other post, because I was simply saying the most interesting places to visit in the US may be the least populated.
Not in the mood to discuss various rankings and their issues. Completely unrelated to anything I wrote.
Have a good one.
No wonder 100 million tweets don't go viral featuring content like "I waked the dog again" or "Ouch, my nail broke".
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