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Archiver > PACAMERO > 2000-10 > 0972791864


From: "Mike" <>
Subject: Re: [PA-CAMERON] A response to "Remember when:"
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 23:57:44 -0400
References: <200010281501.e9SF12T02866@lists5.rootsweb.com> <39FAFEFF.8B33DF97@uswest.net>


Linnea,

If we wanted to focus on the ugly part of being human beings, we would be
doing it elsewhere and could spend hours recounting atrocities against each
other that would make your list pale in comparison. Without much effort, I
can add to your list the torturing and imprisonment of my family members for
their religious beliefs, the massacre and butchering of whole towns full of
people, including 5 family members, for their political beliefs as they
fought and died to form this Nation, the 8 family members who lost their
lives along with 600,000 other men who came to the call of their respective
countries to settle the definition of America and died. I could add the
thousands of men who died defending the ideals of Democracy around the World
in 3 Wars and several assorted "police actions." I could include my
Austrian born family members who came to this country seeking political
freedom, and what they must have endured as German speaking people living
here during WW I, or my Irish ancestors who came to this country as white
slaves, who endured as much bigotry and hardship as any other minority group
could ever dream of.

At every turn, they picked themselves up and moved on. My ancestors worked
and struggled to make this Country a better place for their families who
followed them...no less than any other group of people. Fortunately for me,
my family rose above their struggles and focused on their successes. Today,
I don't hate the British for killing my family members, I don't hate
Southern people for killing my Northern family members, I don't hate
Northern people for killing my Southern ancestors. As a nation, we don't
even hate the Germans, Italians, Japanese, or even the Viet Namese. We as a
people are beyond that.

What you are talking about Linnea is the ugly part of being Human. Guess
what, today ain't so hot either. Today around the World there is war, ethnic
cleansing, more slaves than there ever were in our Country's past, children
and woman abuses that you cannot even comprehend, AIDs and other diseases
that are wiping out whole countries in Africa and on and on and on. If you
want to make a difference focus on that.

By passing on that list of "memories" I was not looking for "universal
reverence." For you see, we too have different experiences of the good old
days. The difference is Linnea, we don't use them as excuses for our lot in
life.

And for the focus of this forum, we chose to remember the warm and fuzzies.
We can access the other stuff elsewhere. Please go rain on someone else's
parade.


Mike Wennin
Come Visit the Cameron County Genealogy Project!
http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacamero
Check out the Erie County Genealogy page!
http://www.rootsweb.com/~paerie

----- Original Message -----
From: Scott and Linnea <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 12:29 PM
Subject: [PA-CAMERON] A response to "Remember when:"


> This is my standard response to the "Remember When" poem that seems to
> be a required posting on genealogy lists these days. It is from the
> perspective of one of those dreaded "Gen Xers", so be forewarned. It is
> not only the retired who are tracing their roots!
>
> I do not remember all you talk about, but I have listened closely to my
> parents and my aunts when they talk about their lives when they were
> young
>
> Among their memories...
>
> .getting beat up because their skin was a shade darker than that of
> their peers. The only way to get ahead was to deny your ethnic heritage
> and pass for white
>
> . being refused credit, despite a good job, because a woman on her own
> was deemed unable to handle her own finances.
>
> .living in the South and not being able to go a restaurant with your
> best friend because she just happened to be of a different race
>
> .being the one who found your friend, dead in a parked and burnt out
> car, which she set fire to herself, being pregnant, alone and seeing no
> other options than to end it all.
>
> - being denied your right to vote, attend school, or to be treated with
> respect because you didn't have the "right" color skin.
>
> .being told that if you were raped or molested, it was your own fault
> and of course we have to be more concerned about the fate of the man
> involved because we don't want to ruin HIS life
>
> .listening to stories told by your grandmother, of the number of women
> she knew who died during or soon after childbirth
>
> .living in fear of the next epidemic because this means that almost
> certainly you would lose someone you love.
>
> .being denied a better paying job because you were a single woman and a
> less qualified man with a family needed it more. What were you supposed
> to live on, air?
>
> .if two military officers got married, the woman was expected to give up
> her hard-won commision, even if she outranked her fiance.
>
> .stories of bigotry, sanctioned by society, against those whose looks,
> beliefs or actions deviated from a very rigid set of rules, set by a
> very small sector of the population.
>
> One of the things I have learned doing genealogy and reading history is
> that the evils we think are modern inventions were always among us.
> People were people, and just as capable of good and bad as people of
> today. People still ran away from their spouses, had children out of
> wedlock, cheated in land deals. Politicians were corrupt. Society was
> worried about addictive substances. I strongly suspect that much of the
> nostalgia for these times is based on the privileges that certain, well
> defined, groups of people had in those days. Those days when you didn't
> have to worry about the consequences of any form of bigotry, because
> society agreed with you that you were superior. Given my choice, I
> would much rather live now.
>
> I am not denying you your right to remember your youth through that
> golden haze that time tends to give it. I have my own warm fuzzy
> memories of when I was young. But please, don't expect your memories to
> be universally revered. Some had very different experiences of the good
> old days.
>
> Blessings,
> Linnea
>
>
> ==== PACAMERO Mailing List ====
>
>
>

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