Joe, I think the bottom line is that the America of 2008 is not the America of 1958, or 1988 or '98 for that matter. For better and for worse, depending upon your perspective. I think much of what we remember with nostalgia about everyone being "of one heart" or "on the same team" was partly fear of being perceived as different, partly limited exposure to other cultures and attitudes through a filtered media. Also, change happened at a much slower pace back then. We had more time to assimilate change in little baby steps. Now it comes at us like a tsunami, or should I say like a fire hose; it's non-stop. Those of us in our 40's and older remember that slower pace (and long for it sometimes, certainly). The younger generations just accept it as reality. How things will shake out in the future, I don't know. But I do know that we need to start seeing each other as more the same than different, something I believe Americans do better than anyone else. And yes, I do share your sentiment about foreign language conversations sometimes. I only speak one language (I'm trying to learn "teenager" which consists mostly of grunts; making little progress
), and have not traveled overseas, but imagine that if I were in a foreign country and ran into a fellow American, my English would be going a mile a minute.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brilliant Harvard neuroanatomist who had a stroke and lost the function of the left side of her brain (the ego side) for a time, wrote a book about the experience titled "My Stroke of Insight." A video of one of her presentations is somewhere on this site. Maybe someone can link for us. Anyway, she contends that we are all alike in 99.99% of our humanity. It's that one hundredth of one percent that causes all the mess we see in the world. Amazing, isn't it? I try to remind myself of that when I'm bothered by others' differences. Not there yet, but some days I see a teeny bit of progress.
And on this day, especially, I am sad that wars had to be fought for us to enjoy this freedom, and am deeply grateful for those who were courageous enough to do it.
a new language yesterday at the Jambalaya Festival...