Here is an example of what the citizens of New Hampshire might learn from their neighbors in Maine. This is a street sign. This technology allows for travel, people from outside the immediate vicinity to find their way to and through your home town.
I am now sitting in Quebec City, where I am listening to speakers who have come from Italy, Russia, China, South America, Scotland, France, Germany...you get the idea. And each of these folks are able to bring something new and something shared to the conversation--in this case of emerging understanding in the world of thyroid disease.
Displayed before me are the benefits of cross fertilization.
It works in agriculture and it works in human culture.
Once, attending a Bar Mitzvah of the child of a friend, I was subjected to the rantings of a rabbi whose message was that the "New Holocaust" was not contained in concentration camps but in intermarriage of Jewish boys and girls to Non Jewish boys and girls and as a result the disappearance of the "Jewish people" is on the horizon, through dilution of the gene pool and the loss of Jewish traditions in homes where Christmas trees might stand in the same rooms as menorahs.
That this rabbi could not see the essentially racist nature of his remarks stunned me. It made me think of my own secretary, a woman, raised in West Virginia, who though very bright, never graduated high school and she was outraged by the kids who worked at the McDonald's near her house, whose English was poor. She was fearful, if Spanish and Chinese were spoken in her community, she might be displaced and she might lose her status as a member of a favored group, the group of those who speak English.
Here in Quebec City, the Quebec quois are very fond of French, but nobody seems threatened by the English spoken by the paying tourists.
Is it possible that the world would be a better place if we had more "interbreeding" and exchange between people from different backgrounds, rather than digging in an fearing the exposure to new people and the new ideas they bring?
Glad to hear you were able to locate Quebec City--must have had ample signage along the way. Unless you flew, but of course there's no shortage of signs at the airport.
ReplyDeleteYour conference sounds great--how interesting to listen to speakers with such varied backgrounds talk about research from around the globe. Crossbreeding is a very good idea!
Pretty nice time of year to be in Quebec City as well..
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteMy high school/college French is clearly inadequate, but the Quebec quois are very forgiving.
It does bring home the basic courage it takes to look forward, to see the world as a place of opportunity for enrichment rather than as a threat.
When you have a man talking about encouraging people to "self deport" and a sheriff in Arizona rounding up Mexican looking citizens and throwing them in outdoor "camps" while they await their cases to be heard, you have to ask, "Why are these little American men so small and afraid?"