Show ife I B e Is 5 A U I. I I II U ura Event ven Kathy y Staff Editor When I read the complaint sent in to the Globe December and about being a first response was one of lingual bi-lingual paper my disbelief and I wanted to angrily shame the author But I know that he has a right to his opinion and I realized that maybe he is coming from froni a place of fear A place of trying to find his own culture or sense of roots sense sense of meaning and not seeing it so finds solace by condemning condemning condemn condemn- ing another's which seems to be a common thing to do Building a tradition of fear separation and ignorance Is this the American way When we look at history we do see a lot of call it tradition tradition tradition it but Ill I'll not be satisfied to my tion my culture or my heritage Being a citizen of a land of freedom means that I 1 dont don't have to assimilate or give up who I lam am Those who would condemn that freedom in others condemn it in himself and are a product of a heritage of fear separation ignorance intolerance and genocide Are these the traditional American values that wield a defense against difference Sometimes it r seems they are I remember when I was younger looking for a sense of culture for myself Wanting to feel a part of something ng bigger something of meaning but I wasn't sure what that was wasand wasand wasand and I 1 started looking outside of my home for it What a long strange trip it was that ultimately ultimately ultimately ulti ulti- lead me back home and I saw my home my heritage and felt that sense of my belonging for the first time take nothing for my journey now My ancestry speaks of England Greece Sweden but I grew up with more Mexican culture due to my great aunt marrying a Mexican man and family reunions spent savoring the flavors of that country My grandmother too married a Greek man and I stand in awe at these women's courage to marry outside of their race more than 60 years ago When I 1 was younger I 1 T m I m in r T didn't see the beauty in that or appreciate the family stories at reunion time We V all have so much culture and history and difference and same Our beauty is in all that we are together all that we share and all that is ours alone Together with a desire to understand each other open our minds to each others other's beauty and find our faith when fear is in our heart we can can begin begin egin to heal the past Lets Let's not continue to build that same fear driven heritage culture so prevalent in American history We can embrace a new day of compassion unity and tolerance and our difference wont won't be something to fear Life is a multi-cultural multi event Celebrate the beauty in yourself and your neighbor and teach your children a new language Some would say When does it stop When do we say enough is enough and draw the line on diversity and culture in the Globe The answer is never Give every language a voice Let freedom ring in our paper in our minds and in our hearts We are beautiful We are the world school its it's and like we learned in elementary a small world |