Comments on: Cultural Loss

By: Ragged Clown

Ragged Clown — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:55:39 +0000

In reply to Helen Walsha. Excellent! I wonder if they still have music on a Friday night. Do you still live in the Limehouse area, Helen?

By: Helen Walsha

Helen Walsha — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 10:15:41 +0000

Just a funny aside…my hijab-wearing Bengali friend mentioned that there was a pub that she wanted to see inside as she’d always been intrigued. I went through the names of a few of the ‘prettier’ establishments, as there has been a lot of refurbishment. We eventually narrowed it down to The George! Not what I was expecting 🙂

By: Ragged Clown

Ragged Clown — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 18:06:57 +0000

In reply to Janet. Yes, that’s a good way of putting it. People don't want to change their ways.

By: Janet

Janet — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 05:25:55 +0000

Oh boy, this is so big. Random immediate thoughts include:
—I like your party analogy!
—I think in the U.S. the muddled relationships between church and state and gun culture and other “lifestyles” complicate everything, including immigration.
—I remember saying once about 40 years ago, when my visit to a nature park to benefit from the relaxing and soothing effects of nature was affected by Mexican party music blaring from a boom box belonging to a lively and lovely group of immigrants, “eventually they will figure out that we don’t do that in this kind of park.” But I felt a twinge of that fear you are describing here…a little voice in my head asking, “but what if they don’t, and this becomes accepted practice?”
In other words—“What if people like me become a minority? Where will I find the peace in nature that I have always cherished and must have in order to be happy and healthy?” As we’ve learned repeatedly, and during COVID particularly recently, people don’t want to be forced to change their ways and some will push back in hateful and harmful ways in order to defend their “way of life.” Their traditions and routines. Their personal preferences.
—I think you are correct that acknowledging this is a better strategy than simply calling people xenophobic or racist or unpatriotic because they see immigrants as a threat to their way of life.

By: Claire Greenlea

Claire Greenlea — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 19:55:13 +0000

The immigration question is too big for me to get my head around. I follow discussions on news broadcasts. I have taught children whose parents did not have papers. Maybe the children didn’t either. I enjoyed interacting with those families. I am confused when companies cannot find enough employees and wonder why not allow more people in.

This morning I had my first Mandarin lesson. A woman I have chatted with on the bus began asking me questions about how to pronounce words in English. I started asking her for words in Mandarin. So today we met and taught each other for 2 hours. Her son came to America first. When her husband died, she was alone in China and so came to the US to be with her son and other family members.

Turns out we have much in common. She is very happy to be here with her family. She rides the bus daily and takes English lessons to learn more from the Americans she meets. There is a large Asian community in Austin so she might be able to function without English. I am impressed that she wants to learn more. She is 77 years old. I feel richer for knowing her in just a short space of time.