Anti immigrant crap

It appears it is almost impossible to go anywhere in the USA without running into some idiot who thinks it uplifts them to spout anti-immigrant crap.

You would imagine too that in 2022, in a country where 99.9% of the population is either an immigrant, or possibly a descendent of one of many who have blood on their hands, having murdered the native people and stolen their land, you would find that type of nonsense receding, but the very opposite seems to be the case!

I was reminded of this during what should have been a carefree and pleasant camping outing arranged by our fearless, super organizer of Meet-up fame, Jennifer, at Camp Chowenwah near Jacksonville.

Jennifer prepares the campfire

So highly anticipated was this event that Beth from Guatemala even organized to spend her vacation in Florida with her friend and countrywoman Rosie, in time to coincide with the event.

I have been on many Meet-up events and really enjoyed them so will be writing a few blogs to record the wonderful times we had this time, but had to get this off my chest.

On this camping trip, there were nine of us, two from Jamaica, two from Guatemala, four from the USA and we were joined by Dania from the Dom Rep. She had really come up to enjoy the peace and serenity of the area with her husband who works with NASA at the nearby Cape Canaveral.

On the first night, we gathered around the campfire to bond and exchange stories, but one participant tried to make it into an unpleasant affair. For when Beth and Rosie introduced themselves, her snide remark was to the effect that they should not speak lest they be sent to Massachusetts by Governor DeSantis!

Unbelievable.

Rosie on her trusty bike

For those who are not up to date on Florida news, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis recently  had some Latin speakers from Venezuela who had applied for amnesty in the USA, sent packing to Martha’s Vineyards, where they were told there were jobs and milk and honey waiting for them.

Of course, it was a lie!

What was especially repulsive is that the speaker who tried to spoil our camping trip, had a very thick foreign accent herself, although she claimed to have come from Colorado!

Thank heavens, our new friends, though hurt by the mocking remark, were in such high spirits that they simply ignored her for the rest of the time and enjoyed themselves with the other more civilized participants.

L-R; Dania, Rosie, Sonia, Beth (behind) Joan (in front)

It was really wonderful having them around and even when we were ready to depart, Rosie rode over to our cabin to invite us to breakfast.

We five, put all our surplus food together, cooked breakfast, ate, bonded, laughed, listened to music, exchanged stories and had a wonderful morning together.

And we will be friends for years to come, thanks to Jennifer who organized another enjoyable trek into the great outdoors.                                                 

 Link;  https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2022/10/glamping.html?m=1

 

Racism Will Survive Forever in America

As one who lived for a while in the Untied States when racism was totally overt, dangerous and widely acceptable, I have never been overcome by the romantic notion that racism had ever died out there.
What I do know is that it has again become an overt topic since Obama was elected and more so since he was re-elected last week, since the confidence the racists had that they would  have rebounded,  received a serious blow on the 6th November 2012.

What had happened in the past four years was that to be considered polite, one had to do the "politically acceptable" thing and not admit, do or say anything  publicly to indicate that one was living in the past, except of course if one was a proud member of  fringe organisations like the Klu Klux  Klan.

So most white Americans had become  become experts at hiding it, especially the more educated ones. That excludes idiots like Denise Helms from Turlock, California, who posted on Facebook that "Another 4 years of this (N word) ... Maybe he will get assassinated this term,"


When interviewed by the Daily News, Helms said she was not racist!  I put her among the less educated
since not only is she not smart enough to camouflage her obvious racism but also she is an employee at an ice cream parlour, so I assume she is a high school dropout.


I also assme that it is mostly red neck dropouts who  have taken their cue from that idiot Donald Trump   (Trump declared on election night that the US was no longer a democracy!) and have been signing petitions for their states to withdraw from the federation of united states.

According to "We the People" https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions , petitions have come in from Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maine, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington etc. 

No one needs to take these seriously however, since for example, the population of Maine is over 1.3 million whereas the red neck petitioners are a mere 1,585. 

Iowa  has a population of 3.06 million while petitioners are 1,483 and that is the general trend.

These red necks  therefore are a tiny, tiny minority and most likely aligned to the klu Klux klan or some other extremist group.

 It is however imperative that the US secret service ups its security, for all it takes is one mad man to change the face of history, but we have to accept that crazy, anti social elements will continue to exist throughout the world as long as this planet is inhabited by humans.