A significant side effect of reading world news is a renewed appreciation for what most of us who live in the numerous variations of Small Town USA take for granted.
A significant side effect of researching world history is a renewed appreciation for what it has taken to make Small Town USA happen in the first place, so that we are able to take for granted what we have here.
When it comes to world news, and history for that matter, a person has to kind of find a middle ground between the two extremes that seem to be presented to us. Reality, I've found, mostly lies somewhere in the middle - and it's not going to look the same to everyone because each and all are looking at it from their own perspective.
People who are afraid of monsters are going to see monsters. People who are hunters at heart are going to see prey. People-savers are going to see people to save. Politicians are going to see votes. Taxpayers are going to see leeches. They're all looking at the self-same thing, and nobody's wrong.
What has brought me to this epiphany on this day?
A news article (surprise, surprise) about Germany, this one focusing on one of the aspects of that country's current crisis - the people who are flooding into that land and apparently leaving whatever ethics, morals, even good manners, they may have once possessed behind them somewhere along the way.
Populations seem to be on the move ... something I've read about because you can't do research for books that are about the long time ago days without running into the concept. When millions of people relatively suddenly start to just leave where they are to go someplace else, is it any great big shock to notice that things might be a little off kilter?
We've got Mexicans moving north; we've got a lot of middle east peoples moving en mass across Europe. Legally and illegally, they're on the move.
Me, I'm snugged in here in my own Small Town USA - things here were stable and unchanging for many decades, or so it seemed. Young people moved away ... a bunch of them have moved back. Many of our little towns have been saved from extinction by the influx of people from many places - many others have died along the way. Changes are happening even here in the hinterland. My own block here in Small Town USA is different. Three of the dozen or so homes are occupied by people I grew up with. The other 3/4 are 'outsiders', at least they were when they first got here.
BUT ...
They're all Americans. They've moved great distances, many of them, to get here but the ways and cultures are not so very different. A big part of that no doubt goes to them having done their own homework before making their decisions to come here. For the most part I don't recollect our little town getting together and deciding to invite them here, although I do believe we have a website (several, probably) to tell the world at large what a great place this is. Heck, I even wrote a book based on local happenings and people that presents a pretty enticing view of Small Town USA. Maybe I ought to write the other side of the story to provide balance and try to dissuade people from looking any closer at us. And that's just us. Ask Colorado about newcomers.
At any rate, that's our little situation. It's a whole lot different from what's going on elsewhere.
The Mexicans coming in is a sore point for many ... has been for a long time in a lot of places that have been impacted by it. I think what gets to us on that front isn't so much that they're coming - it's that they're doing it illegally.
That, and the having to 'press one for English' thing. Lots of people from all over the place have moved here from the get-go. There were people speaking any number of different languages at any given time along the way. Germans showed up speaking German, Norwegians speaking Norwegian, French people speaking French. Spaniards spoke Spanish. Indigenous folk spoke their tribal languages. Yada yada. The point is that English has been the primary language of the United States for a good reason. Rather than try to learn all of the different languages spoken by all of the different peoples, everyone learned English. And so it has been, for the most part. Finding a place in the United States that cannot speak English might prove a bit difficult. Granted, different regions have their own variations (western twang, southern drawl, upper midwest staccato with maybe still a bit of Norse or German accents, etc.). I've run into United States citizens here and there and been totally unable to make heads nor tails of what they were trying to say. Yet it's all got that English base.
And that whole little rant is simply to say that the incoming (especially the illegals) who expect the dominant culture to accommodate them in terms of language and culture are going about the whole thing a bit backwards. No wonder there are those among us who want to say, 'If you want to come here and become a part of us, pitch in, do your bit for the greater good, we're fine with that. But if you're thinking to force upon us your ways, you'd best think again.'
Culturally speaking, linguistically speaking, I'm all in favor of different folks celebrating their various traditions, keeping their languages alive, sharing their cuisines and costumes, what have you. In an appropriate context, such can only add to the richness of our cultural mix here. What bothers people is when their own traditions, language, belief systems are challenged by those who are 'newcomers', relatively speaking.
Now, nobody really wants to hurt someone else's feelings (rebuttable presumption, that) so it's only decent manners to allow others the same freedom of expression that you want for yourself.
All this 'I find that offensive' baloney doesn't belong in the United States of America. For example, if you want to sit in the lotus position and chant mantras, you'd best not be thinking you can 1) insist that everyone else has to, too; and 2) not go getting bent out of shape if someone else wants to fold their hands and bow their heads in prayer. If you want to weave the Maypole, that's fine; be okay with your next door neighbor putting up a totem pole. If you want to wave your Rainbow flag, go ahead; just don't get peeved about somebody else waving the Confederate flag. If you don't like circles on crosses, go to a church that has a plain cross - and don't yipe about the circles of others. If you don't like what someone else chooses to wear, so what? They probably don't like what you're wearing, either. So what? To qualify that last just a little: if someone is wearing a bikini and flip-flops when it's forty below, it would be a kindness to offer them a parka and mukluks.
It's common sense, people.
And it's sparked controversy. It will spark more. You and I have the right, here in the United States to think, feel, believe, behave, as we choose - as long as it isn't hurting anyone. By 'hurting' I mean in terms of literal harm. If I wore a suit of armor with spikes poking out all over the place it would be fine - right up until I decided I wanted to go around hugging people and poking them full of painful holes with those spikes. If they don't like the looks of it, so what? It isn't hurting them, is it? No. If a family wants to speak German at home, so what? That isn't hurting anyone. But they certainly can't expect others to, and they can't expect others to spend their hard-earned money on buying German-English dictionaries to carry around with them everywhere just in case they happen to meet up with them. That's just dumb, as a German from Russia might say and call you a dummkopf.
Physical harm also includes financial burdens because diminished financial resources really does cause physical harm. To make the point, what if all the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on bilingual signs were shared out among us? It might buy each of us a cup of coffee (not Starbucks, mind you, but still a cup of coffee we wouldn't have had otherwise). What if all the school books and such printed in Spanish so the Mexican children don't have to learn English were replaced (with the same money) by English teachers so that the Mexican children could learn English quickly? Hmmm?
Yeh.
I know.
You think I'm off topic again.
I'm not.
The Mexican illegal aliens now in the United States are going to soon look like a hangnail compared to what's on the horizon. They might irritate the heck out of us but the bottom line is that we know, and they know, that we can fairly easily gather up their millions of selves if and when we choose to do so, and pack them right on back into Mexico, zip up that border, and that's that. If they want to come back, they can learn English, arrange for gainful legal employment, and get their paperwork ducks in a row ahead of time - then talk about coming back across that border.
The stuff that's going on across Europe right now puts our little Mexican issue into a whole different perspective, doesn't it?
And yes of course I realize that I'm but a little old gramma lady sitting in comfort at her desk in her tumble down cottage on Main Street of Small Town USA in the middle of nowhere. Ain't nobody gonna read much of what I patter.
*laughing*
That's exactly how come I can and do patter at will, whatever I want, whenever I want. I'm not overly concerned about what anybody else thinks or says about it.
Being as I am a citizen of the United States, born and bred, I get to yammer to my heart's content.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
I figure I'll have the rest of my natural life in which to do said pattering. I reckon it will take at least that long before things change and nobody gets to do any such thing any more.
See, it pays to be old now and then. Our young people might see the day when they won't be allowed to do what I'm doing right now. So, to my way of thinking, the more I patter and yammer and all that while I can, the better.
Maybe someday somebody will bother to read some of it and say to themselves, 'Boy, I wish I could do that!' Pattering perfectly personal opinions is one of those things we take for granted. It doesn't have to make the least little bit of sense to anyone - it's still okay to do it.
You know what's another of those things we take for granted around here?
In our own Small Town USA there's not much of anybody we're truly afraid of, not when it comes right down to it.
Somebody coming in here thinking they're gonna get us to change our ways to fit into whatever agenda they might want to impose on us, and wanting to make a serious issue of it, might want to think twice. We are stubborn folk, even the 'newcomers'. We'd probably listen politely if you want to present your case about why we should change our ways to suit you, just because that's good manners. But we wouldn't go along with it. You could talk until you're blue in the face and it wouldn't change a darned thing. You could try to bribe us and still not make any headway. You could move yourselves in here lock, stock, and barrel and we'd probably let you. But if ever you tried to get physical against us, if ever you did harm to any of us, if ever you attempted by force of arms to make us change when we don't want to ... you would immediately wish you'd thought to bring a lot more fire-power with you. Because I'm wagering that there are more weapons in this little town than there are people. And we know how to use them.
We're nice folk here, as a general rule. We might fuss and fret about this or that or the other thing constantly, and talk about each other behind each other's backs, and fidget ourselves into fits about something or other on a regular basis, but ... mostly Small Town USA (the book) is a pretty accurate portrayal of life as we know it in these parts. Since I already wrote all that stuff (twice, once for the original articles and again for the book) I'm certainly not going to sit here and patter it out all over again (I heard that sigh of relief).
We're content where we are, as we are. We're not yearning to be in Europe right about now, although we pray for those who are.
Now that I've almost pattered myself into a coma here, and feel confident that nobody has read anywhere near this far, I'm going to ask a question.
If it is indeed true that there are scads of soldier-age refugees (you know, the ones that everybody takes lots of photos of to show the 'invasion' threat) in those ten million or so people, who just want peace and safety in their homeland (right?) how come is it that nobody's thought to collect them all up, find out exactly what sort of government they want for said homeland, and send them back on home to claim their land for their people? Including the ones who are claiming to be Syrians but are not.
Really. What the heck. Out of ten million there ought to be a good couple million who would make a right fine military force. They ought to have some kind of idea of who and where the bad guys are, you would think. Send them home and see who comes out to fight them. Those would be the bad guys, the ones who don't want the Syrians themselves to have their own land back.
If it is indeed true that half of the civilian population is so opposed to what's going on in their own country that they leave their homes and their homeland, isn't that a good enough indicator that there's something seriously amiss there, and that the ones who are leaving might possibly be the ones who would have the most to gain from recovering their own country?
Or am I just being pie in the sky idealistic again?
Well yeah, I probably am. But geez. Are the civilians so fractured in their ideologies that they can't even agree on what they as a people WANT for their country? If they are that adamantly divided among themselves (which is a purely hypothetical question since I don't have any idea) what the heck are they going to be like when they find themselves in a place where most of the folks around them disagree with some of the things they think are sacrosanct? Half of the population of a country ... that's almost a majority right there.
Again I say: What the heck.
Who's keeping track of all those people? Is anybody even asking them what they want? Don't they have voting rights, displaced though they might be? Don't they give a hoot what's happening back home, or do they just want to leave and never go home?
I dunno. You'd think that, if given the opportunity, they would cast their votes for whatever kind of government they happen to prefer.
Yes, safety first - that's a given and the reason they're all taking off for parts unknown in the first place. But once they've had a chance to catch their breaths, someone really ought to ASK them.
If, when all is said and done, more than half of them are so opposed to what the rest of them are doing, guess what ... They might find themselves thinking in terms of what it would be like to be able to go home to a homeland that's been cleared out (by their own couple million soldiers, who would stay soldiers and protect them from any such thing happening again) and where everybody's pretty much on the same page for a change.
It just seems strange to me. How can the people who want to rule think they're going to have anything or anyone to rule if they wreck the place and all the people leave? What's the point? If all the people who would be providing for said rulers are gone, who's going to be doing the providing?
What if the rest of the civilians head out, too?
Then the only ones who would be left would be the trouble-makers.
Did I not say get all of the civilians out of there?
Yep. Not that anyone is listening.
But with all the ones who just want peace gone, whoever's left there would be the 'guilty parties' of the situation, right?
Get the consensus of the civilians (whose country it's supposed to be in the first place) if possible [if no consensus is possible, that explains a lot right there and the whole lot of them should be sent back to duke it out among themselves, imo], see if they're willing to unite [if they're not, send them all straight back to duke it out], let them regain their country, and leave them the heck alone. If they can't or won't, that's all on them and their too bad.
Good grief.
If more than half of a country's population has to leave home, I'd say said country needs a good house-cleaning. And the ones to do it are the ones who have been forced from their homes. I am not saying that to be mean or to try to imply that nobody else should give a hoot, but to make sure that the ones who would be living in their regained country have the sense of unity it would take to make things work out for them. I think there's something about pulling themselves together to accomplish what they all want - themselves - that would make them stronger all the way around. Confidence in themselves as individuals and confidence in themselves as a people ...
Yep.
I know.
If wishes were horses ...
*sigh*
I'm glad we're not in that boat (yet) and hope I don't live to see the day it comes to that here.
For the time being, I'm not going to worry too awfully much about being invaded here in Small Town USA. If it ever came to that, we'd hie all our old people, kids, and pregnant women into basements full of the necessities and the rest of us would tend to what needed tending to. That's not a pretty scenario but it's pretty certainly what would happen if need be.
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