The Way We Treat Americans

I went to a book discussion group 4/21/11, and we talked about the book: "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. http://www.jamieford.com/novels/.  It is a very good story about the Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans in America during World War II, when, if you remember, the Japanese were interred due to their heritage.

We talked about this a lot: Most of us were not exposed to this part of American history as we were growing up. We seemed to be aware that there was a period in history when children of immigrants were encouraged to learn the new language (American English) but we did not know about the overzealous atrocities of the government to confine the people of Japanese heritage, during the war.

Our government has treated other peoples, as a whole, unwholesomely.  Certainly, the Native Americans fit into this category.  So too, the African-Americans. Jewish Americans.  The Germans, especially during World War I.

Most of the book group echoed the same sentiment: we are now doing the same to the Muslims. This is sad. We do not need to treat people of different heritage as the enemy, just because they are different.

We need to learn from our past, that our differences do not make us enemies, and although we have differences, our similarities are more prevalent.

The Difference in Perspective

I had lunch with a colleague today, and we discussed the fact that children in the same family grow up with different perspectives of the same thing.  If you think about this, it makes sense.  There is usually a time span between the oldest and youngest child.  In my family, the time frame is 10 years.  

There have been multiple times, over the years, when we talk about family activities, and my youngest brother will make the comment that he does not remember that, or will say something like "Where was I?"  Well, he may have been there, but he was so young, that he does not recall the event, or recalls it very differently.

That's okay.

But, it adds an interesting twist to nature vs. nurture...  We hear comments about children who grow up in the same family who turn out differently, and that is an argument for nature not nurture.   But think about it seriously.  Every child's experience in the family is very different.  Each child my feel differently about how parents relate to them.  Each child may have different experiences in school, socially, with family members. So of course, each child brings something different to their memories of the same events...

And, it gives us something to think about, and be sensitive about:  each of us brings our own load to each event in our life....

Part of this discussion included that we felt each generation had its own "Pearl Harbor."  9/11 is one such example... The shooting of JFK is another.  This is an interesting concept...