By working calluses into my hands this summer, I was able to scrap together enough money to take a trip.

Because I was working on a small budget, which was largely devoted to purchasing alcohol and baseball tickets with my friends, I thought we would save cash and stay at a hostel. (To those of you don’t know what hostels are, it is cheap temporary housing catered to young worldly travelers, who, like myself, are low on funds.)

Upon arriving at our West Coast destination, we were immediately met with hostility from the Scottish desk clerk for no deserved reason. At dinner, we were harassed for putting lukewarm coffee in a plastic cup by a French employee who lived up to the widely accepted social stereotype of her people, having hairy armpits and pungent body odor.

After one night of staying in that place, we realized that we were the only Americans there and that we were unwelcome by the staff and most of the guests at this California hostel.

We were expected to act like crude, uncultured boars whose belligerent stupidity would ravage the hostel in an Iraqi fashion. Although we didn’t fully live up to that stereotype, I will admit I was surprised that they allowed us to keep the key deposit. Rather than being allowed the experience to meet people from all over the world, I was left with the bitter taste of resentment that most of the world feels toward Americans.

I am aware that the poor worldly perception of the American people is nothing new. However, this perception has grown far worse since the belligerent days that have followed 9/11 under the Dubya regime.

Rather than sharing with the world tear-filled stories of that awful day, American travelers are asked to explain themselves as to the purpose of military action in Iraq. They ask carpenters, landscapers and undergraduate college students why our country has gone and done something so atrocious. The rest of the world has either forgotten (or was never informed) that a very large fraction of the American population – including a large number of politicians – has adamantly been against the war.

George W. Bush won the election by the tightest margin of any president in one of the sketchiest elections in world history. He does not even come close to sharing the thoughts and ideas of half the American population; and his approval rating, which has plummeted 40 points since 9/11, reflects that.

The leaders of strong European nations have spearheaded the movement to vilify Americans. The speeches given by these NATO countries, who not too long ago were nothing but yes-men to any sordid foreign policy the United States wished to pursue, have given the people of their country a renewed hatred for America’s foreign practices. But because people can’t protest directly to the American politicians themselves, they protest to the people who they think are in charge of putting the politicians there.

This type of treatment by the world’s general public has resulted in a prejudice to all those who are American. This prejudice, to my surprise, is found even amongst some of the most well-traveled and supposedly well-learned people of the world.

As an American who did not vote for Bush, who has not approved of 99 percent of his policies and who can still locate any country in the world on a map despite the fact that I have not traveled much, I shouldn’t be judged as a member of an indulgent mob of pigs.

It should also be noted that many of the countries that have finally decided to take a stand against America are only doing so because American foreign policy is stepping on the economic toes of these nations. Many countries like Germany, France and Russia had contracts with Saddam Hussein and Iraqi oil. There were contracts that were negated when the American army overthrew him. The anti-war sentiment raised by the leaders of these nations wasn’t because of any noble change of heart or sudden achievement of Zen. It had to do with money and power.

Instead of accosting all American citizens like their politicians want them to, foreign peoples should turn toward their own leaders and ask them why they didn’t protest American policy sooner.