Hateful Things

[mdnitemarv]

One of Hartford's better cultural attractions is the Mark Twain House and Museum. Now, I'm usually not all that impressed by seeing a dead rich person's old house. Even if that old house belonged to America's best author, I still don't really care, so I never went to the Twain House

Comments

[kidoublesing]

That is definitely something I would like to check out. If you're not uncomfortable, then you're not learning. I remember 1984, and I remember being told that Jesse Jackson was a bad man, and who did he think he was running for president, etc. To this day, besides being an adulterer, I'm not sure why my mother saw him as a bad man...

[mdnitemarv]

You'd love the Mark Twain House and Museum. Twain's a man of your own heart.

[leapfrog2747]

"Interesting to see how once young Samuel Clemens left his Missouri upbringing and traveled around, his sense of human decency didn't gibe with being racist, so he gave it up and wrote against racism."

This point is so key. One of the reasons our area (LV) is the way it is is that so many people have never LEFT this area. They're small-minded because they haven't experienced anything beyond the borders of bumfuck, PA; they haven't had the chance to meaningfully interact with people from various backgrounds. The homogeneity of this area provides safety and comfort on one hand and complete confinement on the other.

I'm a big believer in study abroad/study away for my students for this very reason. So many of them come from sheltered lives and carry the norms of those lives in a hip pocket. For some of them, even traveling to a major metropolitan area is a big deal, so I like to see them forced out of their comfort zones as much as possible. Nothing good ever comes from being too comfortable!