Open Letter to Elizabeth Moon

[jimhines]

Ms. Moon,

I’ve been torn about writing this.  In part because “An open letter to _____” just sounds pretentious to me.  And partly because I know there have already been twenty-four gazillion responses to your 9/11 blog post, Citizenship.

I’ve recommended your blog on multiple occasions, for your thoughtfulness and perspective.  I disagree with

Comments

[sinboy]

A point I made elsewhere is that America, and Americans like Moon have engaged in hypocrisy when it comes to "assimilation" . We don't assimilate into other cultures. As long term guests in foreign countries, we resist assimilation with a stubbornness that would send Moon into hysterics if Muslims here did the same.

But beyond that, Moon's ideas about how Muslims in America should act are profoundly insulting. Perhaps we're a bit distanced from them by virtue of not being Muslim. We have the luxury that, if we were friends with Ms. Moon, we can remain so, because she didn't mean *us* in her tirade.

[jimhines]

Interesting point, thank you. I'm having a brain fart here -- can you think of areas/times when we've had large numbers of Americans emigrating to other countries?

No disagreement that a lot of what she said, and the phrasing used, was indeed insulting.

[sinboy]

Emigrating to claim citizenship? Not really. But we do move to other countries and live as long term residents. Still, other than learning and obeying the laws of the US, I don't think immigrants to the USA owe anyone a conformity to cultural norms, even if they seek citizenship.

[tazlet]

sinboy's post reminded me of Americans I met on military bases or American compounds overseas who expressed fear of going off base or out of the community and experiencing strange customs and cultures -- Japan, Egypt, England -- No joke, I met individuals who had never been off Lakenheath Air force base in East Anglia!

[akiko]

Oh fer cryin out loud.

... then again, I had worse culture shock going to Oregon (from the southeast) than I did going to Germany as an exchange student or when I spent a month in Berlin earlier this year. I may be somewhat of an anomaly.

[tazlet]

I had worse culture shock going to Oregon...

Oregon is not, and I'm speaking as a native Oregonian, the most cosmopolitan of states [just the most beautiful;)].

[akiko]

It certainly was pretty, the 4 months it wasn't raining every day ;) (I was in the Willamette Valley.) I couldn't help being amused at everyone complaining about the awful heat when it was 85 degrees with 10% humidity.

[jonquil]

Heh. I telecommuted to Corvallis (which is, admittedly, like telecommuting to Austin) and every time I stepped off the plane it was "My home! My home!" If it hadn't been a one-job town (Rogue Wave, at the time) I would have seriously, seriously considered relocating.

Corvallis is this wee little island of college-town.

[akiko]

That's where I lived. (I did a residency at Good Sam.) It claims to be a college town, but it's no Chapel Hill.

[jonquil]

Chapel Hill is waaaaaay too big for me. I also loathe the climate.

[akiko]

To each their own. I hated the climate in Corvallis: 9 straight months of 50 degrees and raining? No thanks. Corvallis is way too small and provincial for me.

[jonquil]

Yup. One man's meat is another man's poison. I settled happily in the Bay Area, which rains from October to April, after living miserably in Charlotte, which requires air conditioning from April to October.

[tazlet]

Now I'm homesick for a slice of the huckleberry pie from Beckie's Cafe up on Union Creek.

[colorlessblue]

Not my personal experience, but I've always read that Americans living in military bases in Germany often spend years there without ever learning the language, for example.
I can see how that could happen without effort from their part to keep isolated, because of how widespread English is in Germany. I speak German but with an obvious accent, and often when talking to clerks and other professionals that weren't directly involved in the university I was studying, Germans would switch to English as soon as they realized I was a foreigner.
My own experiences with Americans in my country (Brazil) is mostly with missionaries, and that's a rant I'm not going to get into, but suffice to say that the ones visiting the university I attended here would come with a local that is already in their church and give us long lectures in English that were translated by their local buddy. Still, though condescending as hell, it's comparing apples and oranges as these people never intended to spend more than a short time in the country.

[colorlessblue]

Forgot to say, many thanks for the post.

[akiko]

As a German-speaking American who's spent a lot of time in Germany, I can say that's pretty true. They've even got an English-language radio station broadcast from one of the bases. They might learn "noch ein Bier bitte" or something like that, but not so much with the intent of conversation.

While I was in Berlin earlier this year, I got to the point of cringing every time I heard American-accented English on the U-bahn, because a lot of the time, really stupid crap was about to come out of their mouths.