Five Languages
It's
my belief that a working-class environment contributes more to the
society within which it functions than does a setting of wealth or
privilege.
15104 wasn't just the name of one of my blogs. It's also the zip code of the southwest Pennsylvania steel town (North Braddock)
where I spent the first three-plus decades of my life. Where I learned
a few words in at least five languages other than English, on the one
block of Bell Avenue
where we lived. Where I saw a number tatoo-ed on the arm of a local
grocer. Where the graphite that coated our sidewalks, after the Edgar Thompson mill cleaned its smokestacks, looked, in the mind of the child that I was, like diamonds.
Recent political dust-ups, goaded into being by 45 and his MAGA acolytes, are antithetical to what I learned on Bell Avenue. The Republican Party today reminds me of the nativist, anti-immigrant, even xenophobic
threads that have always been part of the fabric of this country. In
the 1920s, such sentiments were not only accepted but even codified into Federal law. That was an omen of what we're seeing today.
The
folks who have most loudly agitated to get "their country" back, are, in my
opinion, ethically, intellectually, and even spiritually impoverished.
That, and the great gift of 15104, are the reasons for this blog.
Expect it, and me, to advocate for diversity and for the working class.
Let's get started.
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