Admittedly I am not the most scholarly person, and likely never will be. I have lived my life as ignorant as most of the average Americans.
My choice of reading is typically a novel, though I have expanded from mainly romance novels to a mystery, or just something that sounds entertaining.
In school I always took just what got me through, I did not choose to take college prep courses like most. Yes of course I regret that now, but you would likely not have been able to convince the teenage me that I should be taking better classes. So here we have me now at the ripe old age of 46 creeping up on 47 going back to college.
In my blog you may discover grammatical errors, which I hope are improving over time. I will admit that being grammatically correct has not been my focus in life. My poor husband has tried to improve that over the last four years. I know his 5th graders are smarter than his wife.
Though I may not read the same books the scholars would choose to read, two choices in reading I have read have shown me something I do not remember from my history class, and I’d be willing to bet it is something that is not history text books that students are using now.
My choice of reading is typically a novel, though I have expanded from mainly romance novels to a mystery, or just something that sounds entertaining.
In school I always took just what got me through, I did not choose to take college prep courses like most. Yes of course I regret that now, but you would likely not have been able to convince the teenage me that I should be taking better classes. So here we have me now at the ripe old age of 46 creeping up on 47 going back to college.
In my blog you may discover grammatical errors, which I hope are improving over time. I will admit that being grammatically correct has not been my focus in life. My poor husband has tried to improve that over the last four years. I know his 5th graders are smarter than his wife.
Though I may not read the same books the scholars would choose to read, two choices in reading I have read have shown me something I do not remember from my history class, and I’d be willing to bet it is something that is not history text books that students are using now.
Years ago I read Danielle Steel’s – “Silent Honor” and it touched my heart and saddened me that although this was a novel it was based on something real that my country actually did.
Sending Japanese-Americans to internment camps, many who were born in America, yes we were at war with Japan but America is a country founded by immigrants just like these people who left their homeland in hopes of building a better life for their families.
How were these people any different from our founding forefathers?
Last night I just finished reading a book by another one of my favorite authors; Lisa Scottoline – “Killer Smile”. This book touches on Italian-American internment camps, same situation as the Japanese-American internment camps, again innocent people who left their homeland to build a better future for their families. Her own grandparents had faced life in these camps, while her father was fighting for this country.
It just saddens my heart greatly knowing that my country imprisoned these people. People not unlike our ancestors who came to this country, America‘s a country built by
immigrants.Sadly, and I am just as guilty, Americans tend to live their lives ignorant and choose not to learn from the past.
Yes, I hate to have to “press 1 to hear this in English”. I really don’t see anything wrong with those who choose to move to this country to build a better life for themselves to learn the language. So, here is the twist – we did not move here and learn to speak Indian – yes I guess I am your typical American hypocrite.
But, did these camps really have to be used? Can they be compared to Hitler’s concentration camps? No, we were not killing innocent people, but we were locking them up…..at what point in our countries history do we learn from the past? We were in a war because of Hitler and his camps and…yet…we were putting people in camps…
I really don’t know how to describe how it makes me feel, to say it saddens me just seems to put it mildly.
Please – can’t we learn from the past!
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