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Currently Reading ...
Dexter, an unofficial sponsor of Occupy Wall Street says,
"Tax the rich!"
Scientists say that Luminiferous Ether isn't real, but we know better!
Don't tell anyone I told you ...
- Suzy
- Proud to be a public school teacher for 26 years, I see teaching as a radical act. Practitioner of Neo-schoolmarmism. School Library Media Specialist. I am a convinced Quaker, born again agnostic, mother of 3 daughters, passionate about issues of peace and social justice. My mom was a "red diaper baby", my dad was a conscientious objector during WW2, and I grew up in the thick of anti-war protests in Madison, Wisconsin in the sixties. Not a Republican bone in my body and not many Democratic ones either.
Peculiar, and (Quietly) Proud Of It!
Molly, loved and missed.
The Stack Next To My Bed
Let's see, that means I'm 32% evil! Bwahahaha.
Wall of Shame ...
11 comments:
you should have heard the people on vacation (on a cruise) talking about immigrants... it made my head spin....
80% of them come from immigrants and their xenophobia made my head spin
How can you respond to that?
I wonder if it would stop them in their tracks to ask, "Oh, so you're descended from Native Americans?" or "Which First Nation are you from?"
I'll come back and listen to it when I go home. There is a Quaker woman here who makes me think of you. She looked at your picture and doesn't know you though. There is such an authenticity with the Quakers I know.
The video didn't work for me ("no longer available") but I agree with what you say here. So clear and yet so many don't get it.....
good video. Thanks for sharing.
I like Steve Earle and had not heard this song. Thanks for posting it.
My family immigrated to the U.S. in 1967 when the only words in English I knew were "she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah". (in '67 we were still catching up on the pop charts in my country of origin). My parents were poor and uneducated and worked in factories while living in the states.
My experiences as an immigrant have been mixed and confusing. While conservative thinkers find my politics "anti-American" i.e. I'm biting the hand that feeds me; liberals often make comments insinuating how unfortunate it is that I don't have an accent and that I'm not visibly "ethnic" (whatever that means).
I hate to say it but as an immigrant, I have been least understood by my liberal friends and acquaitances. I suppose for being too American? I'm not sure what it is about this that dissapoints people: it's perhaps just another form of stereotyping or the need to romanticize the immigrant experience.
I came to this country at an impressionable age and during impressionable times. I am, for many intents and purposes, an American. I am also proficient in my native language and retain strong ties to my country of origin and my family there. I try to have respect for both my experience as an ethnic minority and for the fact that I am, in fact, very American. It's a balance I must keep whether I want to or not. Both are so tighly interwoven as to now be beyond unraveling. It is who I am.
I apologize if I've turned this comment into a soapbox. It's just a slice of life...
P.S.
Pagan Sphinx -- Thank you very much for your comments. Very poignant. It seems like it is all part of the human experience: you're too something, you're not enough something ... people -- liberal and otherwise -- have expectations and somehow you fail to live up to them.
A friend of mine, a musician, tried to get a gig at a street festival in the neighborhood where he grew up -- white, working class (at the time) -- and the guy booking the music told him, "You're not ethnic enough." WTF? Yup, his perception was that the well-to-do white folks who have gentrified the neighborhood want "ethnic" music. Seems just as racist as keeping people out for being "too ethnic."
This song, by the way, is from Steve's new album Washington Square. It's a fantastic album.
Suzy, thanks for understanding my meaning. It means a lot to me to be understood - for obvious reasons!
For some reason, your musician friend's story made me remember a vignette from my chidhood in the U.S. Being a teacher, I think you will appreciate this: when I was in second grade, my teacher (I adored her - she had a That Girl hairstyle and dressed like Audrey Hepburn!) asked me if I could bring in a Portuguese doll (that's where I'm from). I was thrilled she asked me, so I went straight to my room after school and put my blonde, blue-eyed baby doll (bought over with me from Portugal)on top of my bookbag so I would not forget it the next day. When I proudly showed my doll to my teacher, she looked confused and the slightest bit irritated, replying something to the effect that she was looking for a doll in traditional dress!!! I was perfectly crestfallen. As it turned out, neither she nor I had the slightest clue! lol
I'm glad to have found your blog!
P.S.
This is a GREAT song and I am so glad that you posted it.
Thank you!
Just got our tickets today to see Steve Earle in a couple of weeks. I am sooooo excited. I love the new album, plus it just does my heart good to hear him being so politically outspoken. There aren't enough performers (even now) who speak out nearly enough.
I love the song too. Great video.
And thanks to pagan sphinx for the enlightening comments.
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