In the 1990s I worked for one year in a nursing home. I was astonished to find that most of the nursing assistants were from Africa. They had come here on student visas, went to school full-time, worked full-time, paid their expenses (and taxes) and sent money home. I learned a lot from them about America and the strength of human beings and my own immigrant heritage. I was amazed to realize how much they reminded me of my own father who immigrated from Denmark in 1929. Like him, they embraced education as a means to better one's lot in life. Like my dad, they were strict with their children and conservative in their lifestyle.
My dad, of course, was completely uncomfortable around black people. Their dads were completely uncomfortable around white people. Not against each other, but inexperienced and glad their children could do better than they could do at crossing the lines.
Today, I was thrilled to read that Hampton, a small town just outside St. Paul, Minnesota, has elected a Liberian-American mayor.
Another immigrant makes good!
The second best thing about this story is that Hampton is a mostly white community of 750 people and most of them grew up in Hampton.
Paye Flomo came to St. Paul from Liberia in 1985. In 2001, he became a citizen and he and his wife chose to build a house in Hampton because it was affordable. They say they were welcomed in the community from day one.
Good!
Astonishingly, he now works as a personal care assistant at a group home for the disabled. He went to private schools and graduated from business college in Monrovia, Liberia. Like so many immigrants, his overseas education does not translate here. Hopefully, the job of mayor comes with a salary.
Read the whole story at: Pioneer Press
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
While China improves, is America falling apart?
Tom Friedman recently published a column in the New York times that hit home. He says that in the last seven years, China concentrated on national investment, planning, concentrated state power, national mobilization and hard work. Meanwhile the U.S. did nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq and let our own infrastructure go to hell.
How China and America spent the last 7 years
Readers comments varied but the one that most resonated with me is printed in its entirety below. Thanks, hdavis, for saying it so well. He is addressing Tom Friedman.
You have written many excellent columns over the years, but this hit home with me more than any past column. America, the country I love, is in trouble. I always thought our comeback was a moment away. We simply needed to see the challenge and we would rise to meet it. I am no longer sure we can do that. I walk into any major store in America and see few items that we make. In contrast we can make war better (in terms of destruction) than any country in the world. But as a veteran of one war I know nobody is better off in the end and all the USA has done is waste vital resources and energy. I was a Vietnam vet and if we had never been there, we and Vietnam would be better off or at least no worse off. We would not have lost the contribution of 55,000 individuals to our society who instead died in a meaningless war. In the end all wars are meaningless except for the families of the young men and now women who die. We should simply leave the Middle East. We will be better off than if we stay. We need to come home and fix our country. Keep up the good words. I like your work!
— hdavis@uccs.edu, Colorado
How China and America spent the last 7 years
Readers comments varied but the one that most resonated with me is printed in its entirety below. Thanks, hdavis, for saying it so well. He is addressing Tom Friedman.
You have written many excellent columns over the years, but this hit home with me more than any past column. America, the country I love, is in trouble. I always thought our comeback was a moment away. We simply needed to see the challenge and we would rise to meet it. I am no longer sure we can do that. I walk into any major store in America and see few items that we make. In contrast we can make war better (in terms of destruction) than any country in the world. But as a veteran of one war I know nobody is better off in the end and all the USA has done is waste vital resources and energy. I was a Vietnam vet and if we had never been there, we and Vietnam would be better off or at least no worse off. We would not have lost the contribution of 55,000 individuals to our society who instead died in a meaningless war. In the end all wars are meaningless except for the families of the young men and now women who die. We should simply leave the Middle East. We will be better off than if we stay. We need to come home and fix our country. Keep up the good words. I like your work!
— hdavis@uccs.edu, Colorado
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Why John McCain can't rely on technology advisors
A reader asked me if I think McCain could manage competently with technology advisors. Is there something uniquely different about technology compared with economics, foreign policy, or the environment?
My reply:
First off, while he may not know a lot about economics or foreign policy or the environment, he'll have some personal direct experience with all of these areas.
Direct experience is the key here. So, he'll have some personal direct experience from which to draw on to help him discern the information from his advisors. Not so with computer technology. All he'll know is what he'll be told. This will make it easier for a clever, ambitious group of people to steer him into decisions with misinformation. In short, it's easy to trick someone who depends on you for all his information. We went through that problem in Ronald Reagan's presidency. He had early Alzheimer's disease, which was hidden until he was out of office. His trusty advisors ran the Whitehouse and we had Contragate. Not good.
But the more important point is that computers are the entry point for using the Internet and not only has the Internet has changed our lives; it's changed our thinking.
I've owned a personal computer for 20 years. Just this last year I've ventured forth beyond MapQuest and email and reading the New York Times and the Washington Post online. As I've been getting acquainted with the Internet, I am astounded.
The Internet has almost driven staid, old newspapers that are read worldwide, like the NYT and Washington Post, out of business. We get the news from sources that are concepts that didn't exist a few years ago: Youtube, of all places, has been influential in this presidential campaign. That's where I went to find the video of McCain saying he was computer illiterate.
There's also Technorati, Newsvine, Sphere, Zinester, all kinds of services popping up monthly. Nowdays, someone with almost no money but a big idea and a little bit of technical understanding can launch something that grows exponentially and has national or even international influence.
We don't know where we're going with the Internet and all that it offers. I notice that Nicholas Kristof from the NYT has a page on Facebook, as do many other famous newspapers. Why? To attract the young, of course, but I also think they want to have a presence because we don't know how Facebook will be used in months to come.
We don't know how much more is possible with the Internet. The only limit seems to be the human mind and it's wonderful creativity. There is no physical structure to the Internet, so it's growing organically at a rapid speed. All we know is that it is changing how we live and how we think.
That's the point I'm driving to: It's changing how we think.
I mean that in a deep way. How we think about ourselves in the world, how we are placed in the world and how we impact the world. I really don't believe a person can understand this without some minimal direct experience.
Like I said at the beginning of this entry, I've owned a personal computer for twenty years. But when I got my own website and began blogging, I started to really explore the Internet. I have only seen a small portion of the Internet, yet it boggles my mind. There are amazing things happening on the Internet, yet there is still unrealized potential. The Internet is already a living, organic entity that is whipping its users.
McCain hasn't even taken that first baby step into using a computer. How can he understand the Internet without any direct experience? His mind won't catch an understanding on advice alone.
My reply:
First off, while he may not know a lot about economics or foreign policy or the environment, he'll have some personal direct experience with all of these areas.
Direct experience is the key here. So, he'll have some personal direct experience from which to draw on to help him discern the information from his advisors. Not so with computer technology. All he'll know is what he'll be told. This will make it easier for a clever, ambitious group of people to steer him into decisions with misinformation. In short, it's easy to trick someone who depends on you for all his information. We went through that problem in Ronald Reagan's presidency. He had early Alzheimer's disease, which was hidden until he was out of office. His trusty advisors ran the Whitehouse and we had Contragate. Not good.
But the more important point is that computers are the entry point for using the Internet and not only has the Internet has changed our lives; it's changed our thinking.
I've owned a personal computer for 20 years. Just this last year I've ventured forth beyond MapQuest and email and reading the New York Times and the Washington Post online. As I've been getting acquainted with the Internet, I am astounded.
The Internet has almost driven staid, old newspapers that are read worldwide, like the NYT and Washington Post, out of business. We get the news from sources that are concepts that didn't exist a few years ago: Youtube, of all places, has been influential in this presidential campaign. That's where I went to find the video of McCain saying he was computer illiterate.
There's also Technorati, Newsvine, Sphere, Zinester, all kinds of services popping up monthly. Nowdays, someone with almost no money but a big idea and a little bit of technical understanding can launch something that grows exponentially and has national or even international influence.
We don't know where we're going with the Internet and all that it offers. I notice that Nicholas Kristof from the NYT has a page on Facebook, as do many other famous newspapers. Why? To attract the young, of course, but I also think they want to have a presence because we don't know how Facebook will be used in months to come.
We don't know how much more is possible with the Internet. The only limit seems to be the human mind and it's wonderful creativity. There is no physical structure to the Internet, so it's growing organically at a rapid speed. All we know is that it is changing how we live and how we think.
That's the point I'm driving to: It's changing how we think.
I mean that in a deep way. How we think about ourselves in the world, how we are placed in the world and how we impact the world. I really don't believe a person can understand this without some minimal direct experience.
Like I said at the beginning of this entry, I've owned a personal computer for twenty years. But when I got my own website and began blogging, I started to really explore the Internet. I have only seen a small portion of the Internet, yet it boggles my mind. There are amazing things happening on the Internet, yet there is still unrealized potential. The Internet is already a living, organic entity that is whipping its users.
McCain hasn't even taken that first baby step into using a computer. How can he understand the Internet without any direct experience? His mind won't catch an understanding on advice alone.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Attention John McCain: Computers aren't just for the young
Senator John McCain should have a tremendous appeal with voters over the age of 55: he’s old and he still has high aspirations. This should inspire those of us who are old enough to join the American Association of Retired People, yet find we have to continue working for another ten to fifteen years or even longer, the way the cost of living is going up.
Maybe it’s okay for us to not retire, considering a guy older than us has enough energy left to be president. But does he have enough of the right experience? I think not. I just went to YouTube and saw John McCain admit he is computer illiterate. Well, how was he to know this would be important? When he started his career, personal computers didn’t exist.
They didn’t exist for me and my peers in nursing school in the 1970s either. But by the mid-1980s, computers had begun to creep into our work. It scared some of us – we were high-touch, low-tech people, but we learned to use computers because that’s what we had to do. As time went on, we learned to input test results, chart and schedule visits on computers. As the health industry became an industry in financial crisis, we learned to talk to patients on the phone and chart on the computer at the same time.
I work now as a nurse in an insurance company. It’s a good job for an aging body. I work with nurses who are good nurses and dependable employees, but they really don’t want to learn anything new, certainly not anything like new computer software. We are old, we have paid our dues, our memories are shot and learning things other than compassion and patience at this age is difficult. Nonetheless, every couple of months, we go to another training on the software upgrades. We do this because we are working people with jobs in the 21st century. The economy being what it is, we thank this past administration for keeping us working so we stay current with the latest computer technology. Without our computer skills, we couldn’t email our kids and grandkids or use Google to find out if glucosamine helps arthritis or make airplane reservations to fly to the Democratic convention.
Which leaves me wondering how John McCain will manage his role as commander-in-chief when he’s illiterate? I can tell you how. He’ll do what he’s been doing the last fifty years; he’ll depend on his staff. He will depend on his staff to read and send his email, access internet information, key in data, and advise him on which telecommunication company should control the internet. Dependency like this will leave him completely vulnerable to people who got close to him by being smart and ambitious. Smarter than he is, perhaps. Do we want another old guy in the White House who depends on his subordinates for basic functions the rest of us old people mastered long ago? Just because he trusts his staff, should we? Do we want a president who embodies planned obsolescence?
Originally published at: http://www.MinnPost.com/community_voices/
Maybe it’s okay for us to not retire, considering a guy older than us has enough energy left to be president. But does he have enough of the right experience? I think not. I just went to YouTube and saw John McCain admit he is computer illiterate. Well, how was he to know this would be important? When he started his career, personal computers didn’t exist.
They didn’t exist for me and my peers in nursing school in the 1970s either. But by the mid-1980s, computers had begun to creep into our work. It scared some of us – we were high-touch, low-tech people, but we learned to use computers because that’s what we had to do. As time went on, we learned to input test results, chart and schedule visits on computers. As the health industry became an industry in financial crisis, we learned to talk to patients on the phone and chart on the computer at the same time.
I work now as a nurse in an insurance company. It’s a good job for an aging body. I work with nurses who are good nurses and dependable employees, but they really don’t want to learn anything new, certainly not anything like new computer software. We are old, we have paid our dues, our memories are shot and learning things other than compassion and patience at this age is difficult. Nonetheless, every couple of months, we go to another training on the software upgrades. We do this because we are working people with jobs in the 21st century. The economy being what it is, we thank this past administration for keeping us working so we stay current with the latest computer technology. Without our computer skills, we couldn’t email our kids and grandkids or use Google to find out if glucosamine helps arthritis or make airplane reservations to fly to the Democratic convention.
Which leaves me wondering how John McCain will manage his role as commander-in-chief when he’s illiterate? I can tell you how. He’ll do what he’s been doing the last fifty years; he’ll depend on his staff. He will depend on his staff to read and send his email, access internet information, key in data, and advise him on which telecommunication company should control the internet. Dependency like this will leave him completely vulnerable to people who got close to him by being smart and ambitious. Smarter than he is, perhaps. Do we want another old guy in the White House who depends on his subordinates for basic functions the rest of us old people mastered long ago? Just because he trusts his staff, should we? Do we want a president who embodies planned obsolescence?
Originally published at: http://www.MinnPost.com/community_voices/
Friday, July 25, 2008
Whose fantasy is it - McCain's or Obama's?
A friend sent me this animated video about our presidential candidates from JibJab. It's hilarious, but I also found myself on the verge of tears when it showed Barack Obama in a Disney fantasy type of world.
Citizens of the U.S.A. and the world have suffered so much under the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that I worry we can't recover. But we will.
Election '08
Citizens of the U.S.A. and the world have suffered so much under the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that I worry we can't recover. But we will.
Election '08
Her pain, my shame
As a European American or, as my African American neighbors referred to me, a white woman, I know about guilt and shame. It's a feeling that comes with awakening into racism, realizing you were born into privilege.
It is not an easy awakening. Few people want to see racism in themselves. My students in China were very proud that there was no racism in China. I was stunned that they actually believed this. They often reminded me of Minnesotans in the early 1960s. What do you mean there's racism? We've done so much for those people. The 1960s was a time of civil rights marches, rallies, lunch counter sit-ins. It was hard work convincing whites that separation was not equality.
We still have a long way to go in America, but our huge step was in acknowledging there is racism in America.
I don't see that China has awakened yet. Tibet is considered a political problem. Charging foreigners more for the same service or product is considered clever business.
Below are excerpts of an essay written by Tang Danhong, a poet and documentary filmmaker from Chengdu, Sichuan province in China. In 2005, she moved to Israel and currently teaches Chinese language at Tel Aviv University. Her essay was published in her blog and translated into English by China Digital Times.
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/03/tibet-her-pain-my-shame/
She is a Han Chinese and has visited Tibet many times. She writes sympathetically about Tibetans and berates her fellow Han:
"Why can’t you understand that people have different values? While you believe in brainwashing, the power of a gun and of money, there is a spiritual belief that has been in their minds for thousands of years and cannot be washed away. When you claim yourselves as “saviors of Tibetans from slavery society,” I am ashamed for your arrogance and your delusions. When military police with their guns pass by me in the streets of Lhasa, and each time I am there I can see row upon row of military bases… yes, I, a Han Chinese, feel ashamed.……
What makes me feel most ashamed is the “patriotic majority”: You people are the decedents of Qinshi Huangdi who knows only conquering by killing; you are the chauvinists who rule the weak by force; you are those cowards who hide behind guns and call for shooting the victims; you suffer from Stockholm Syndrome; you are the blood-thirsty crazies of an “advanced” culture of Slow slicing and Castration. You are the sick minds waving the “patriotic” flag. I look down on you. If you are Han Chinese, I am ashamed to be one of you."
Dear Teacher Tang, I know this feeling. I also know shame is a useless feelings. As we awaken to racism, we must do something. We must ask ourselves, what shall I do about this bit of suffering? As poet Mary Oliver asks, What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?
I feel heartened to read Tang Danhong's essay. Her writing will awaken others.
It is not an easy awakening. Few people want to see racism in themselves. My students in China were very proud that there was no racism in China. I was stunned that they actually believed this. They often reminded me of Minnesotans in the early 1960s. What do you mean there's racism? We've done so much for those people. The 1960s was a time of civil rights marches, rallies, lunch counter sit-ins. It was hard work convincing whites that separation was not equality.
We still have a long way to go in America, but our huge step was in acknowledging there is racism in America.
I don't see that China has awakened yet. Tibet is considered a political problem. Charging foreigners more for the same service or product is considered clever business.
Below are excerpts of an essay written by Tang Danhong, a poet and documentary filmmaker from Chengdu, Sichuan province in China. In 2005, she moved to Israel and currently teaches Chinese language at Tel Aviv University. Her essay was published in her blog and translated into English by China Digital Times.
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/03/tibet-her-pain-my-shame/
She is a Han Chinese and has visited Tibet many times. She writes sympathetically about Tibetans and berates her fellow Han:
"Why can’t you understand that people have different values? While you believe in brainwashing, the power of a gun and of money, there is a spiritual belief that has been in their minds for thousands of years and cannot be washed away. When you claim yourselves as “saviors of Tibetans from slavery society,” I am ashamed for your arrogance and your delusions. When military police with their guns pass by me in the streets of Lhasa, and each time I am there I can see row upon row of military bases… yes, I, a Han Chinese, feel ashamed.……
What makes me feel most ashamed is the “patriotic majority”: You people are the decedents of Qinshi Huangdi who knows only conquering by killing; you are the chauvinists who rule the weak by force; you are those cowards who hide behind guns and call for shooting the victims; you suffer from Stockholm Syndrome; you are the blood-thirsty crazies of an “advanced” culture of Slow slicing and Castration. You are the sick minds waving the “patriotic” flag. I look down on you. If you are Han Chinese, I am ashamed to be one of you."
Dear Teacher Tang, I know this feeling. I also know shame is a useless feelings. As we awaken to racism, we must do something. We must ask ourselves, what shall I do about this bit of suffering? As poet Mary Oliver asks, What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?
I feel heartened to read Tang Danhong's essay. Her writing will awaken others.
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