[lit-ideas] Re: speaking of libraries in the United States of Earth
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 06:17:10 -0500
MB:
>>Why is MY culture evil and someone able to state that its only values greed
>>and power?? I grew up with parents who valued family, giving, sharing,
>>caring.<<
So did I. And realize that I use the word "evil" as the boogeyman to scare
people. Evil has no more meaning than Holy does. But where your relations
worked the Underground Railroad, mine owned slaves. My great grandfather did.
And he lost his right arm fighting to protect his God given right to own human
beings. Which side of the coin do you want to look at? Andy and Eric are
carping about very, very poor people working illegally in the United States,
working in appalling conditions for the most part, as if they were causing
great hardships for this loving and benevolent country.
>> Please, though! Please recognize that a good part of who I am, of much of
>> the 'good' from those from my backgounds and worlds--all of the caring and
>> sharing and the healthy world citizen type comes from those who had Befores
>> who came from Europe... <<
Which Europe? The one in the 12th Century that went off to the Holy Lands to
kill Muslims? Or the one in the 15th through the 20th Century that sought to
colonize anyone who didn't own a gun, or burn unbelievers at the stake? Or the
Europe of Nazism and Fascism and totalitarianism and the Holocaust? That
loving, caring Europe? The Europe that starved six million Ukrainians by
exporting their grain for the cash to build the USSR? The Europe that founded
a new nation conceived in genocide, sustained in slavery and brought to
fruition through apartheid, that loving, caring American Europe? That
European-America that spends more on its military machine than the rest of the
world combined, the America that has been at war somewhere in the world for the
last 60 years -- that America? The America that sloughed off it's poor into
wretched slum cities and now is going about abandoning the old and sick so it
can line the pockets of billionaires with subsidies -- that America?
Of course there's the other Europe, the Europe of astonishing art and
literature and intellectual achievement. A Europe of great cities, of great
culture and civilized conduct, of dedication to human liberty and justice and
dignity. There's that America too. But when folks start whining about the
very poorest among us and wanting to crack down on them, all I see is that
other Europe and America -- that hideous death machine ever there, ever waiting
for someone to push the button.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 8:03 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: speaking of libraries in the United States of Earth
Hi,
Hey!! <g> I have Befores who have talked at length on such matters--I
keep thinking I need to write my grandmother's tale of travels in the Middle
East during the early 1920s...and her Befores were in Pennsylvania and Ohio for
a long long time...and worked on the Underground Railroad (we used to go to the
basement when we visited to look at where they used to hide Runaways...)
There is a strength and a goodness in much of the European Cultures--not just
the 'greed and power' aspects! Please--these sweeping generalizations towards
MY Befores are pretty much as mean as the sweeping generalizations of the
Befores who came from Latin America, countries in Asia, etc.
Perhaps we need to do some cultural education of those of us who had folk who
came from afar--from the European world and not just the cultural festivals of
Everyone Else!
I don't mind fingerpointing--I deal lots of times with critical folk towards
myself, my beliefs, my worldview. I examine all the criticism and if there is
even one piece of information which I can use to become a better person, then
the conversation was not completely stupid or in vain.
Please, though! Please recognize that a good part of who I am, of much of
the 'good' from those from my backgounds and worlds--all of the caring and
sharing and the healthy world citizen type comes from those who had Befores who
came from Europe...
Is it truly that all other cultures are 'okay' and wonderful and have no
problems with people in them dealing with greed and power? All other cultures
are sweet and dear and caring?
I wonder, if diversity is so great, than why is it that MY befores are so
hated and looked at so horribly that only the 'bad' is looked at and none of
the 'good'?
Thinking of the multicultural fest planning committee that I'm on, the
American Cultures merit badge workshop that I'm planning, and feeling rather
wounded within my cultural soul,
Marlena (trying to be a world citizen but sad if that means having to hate
her own Befores...)
RE:
this evil white European English speaking culture, it's bloody murder, its
only values are greed and power. Etc., etc., etc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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