Weekend Open Thread
My apologies for the lack of posts today. I had breakfast with Amanda and friends this morning, then headed up to Barr HQ to see what was going on. There were around 25 or so volunteers phone banking. You can look at the pics here.
After that I spent some time with the family over at my parents place. We were celebrating my mother's clean bill of health. I also had a great chat with my mom's neighbor, Maurice. We talked politics, education, religion and music for a couple hours. He immigrated here from Jamaica in 1980. Turns out he is libertarian/conservative.
Anyway, I'm out. Good night.
Comments
It is good to talk to people from other parts of the world and from different cultures to see how much we have in common.
After talking with people we find that we are not that different from one another. We have the same basic needs and wants. And we are in the stew together.I remember the first time that I met someone from another country in our neighborhood.
The family were from Taiwan and the time was 1968. Here in our world when we have new neighbors we go and welcome them to the neighborhood and try and make them feel welcome. Their custom was to go and meet us. Most people in our neighborhood shut the door in these folks face without accepting their greeting. They came to our house and my father welcomed them in and treated them with Southern hospitality. The family was very scared of their new surroundings. My dad talked with them and explained he would help them to learn our world. The couple were very nice and had a small baby girl.
The father was a college professor and taught mathematics. The mother was a teacher of philosophy.
As time passed we grew to be good friends and gradually the young couple learned to communicate much better with our other neighbors who treated them like some type of plague. When 1970 rolled around the father's sister came to visit. She was very nice and worked in Washington DC. Her fiance' came to visit one weekend and the family asked us out to dinner with them all. They took us to a Chinese restaurant in Atlanta and it was new for us. The man who came from Washington to see his wife to be was the Secretary of Education for the United States under President Nixon. We moved from the area in 1971 and the family from Taiwan moved also. We stayed in touch. He got a job at the Savanah River Plant because he was a doctor of nuclear physics. His wife transferred to Augusta to be with him. I haven't heard from them for a long time but it shows that these little folks from Taiwan were very intelligent and were very beneficial to our community.
Well the next thing I would like to encourage which this gentleman from Taiwan after becoming an American Citizen thoroughly enjoyed was voting. Please if you are eligible to vote get out and exercise that right because it does mean so much. 'We all are accountable for the person's we chose to lead us.'
The Doctor
Posted by: The Doctor | August 3, 2008 02:07 AM
Good to hear about your mom's "clean bill of health." You could have said something yesterday... in person. Just goes to show, if you want real informative news, this is the place to come.
Posted by: Daniel N. Adams | August 3, 2008 10:31 AM