[Oe List ...] conversation on white trash racism

[W. J. via OE]

John, I liked that you wrote "hoards" instead of "hordes". Right on target with your homonym! Or malapropism. And very appropriate, given the context. It takes a spark of genius to (mis)use a word that makes us think twice.You're being malaprophetic.
Marshall
 

    On Wednesday, September 27, 2017 11:42 AM, John Epps via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
 

 Thanks for your thoughtfulprovocation of this dialogue, Marshall. As has often been the case you posedifficult and profound issues. I apologize if my initial response seemed to trivializethe genuine concern (“those folks give white trash a bad name”), but sometimesa bit of humor buys time for more thoughtful consideration. Here’s the currentresult of that, and thanks again for initiating the conversation.
I was reminded of the occasion inMalaysia when, en route to facilitating a conference of 35 CEOs from a holdingcompany, I discovered our rental car had 3 tires and the spare tire stolen.Later lamenting to a friend, I said, “What kind of person would do such athing?” His answer that stopped me was, “A desperate person.” 
So perhaps the apparent hatred comingfrom your neighbors – and, as you say – from many others, is an expression ofdesperation, and the question becomes, “For what?” Any attempt to address thesituation cannot be direct or rational. These people and the hoards like themcare about something that is being taken away. Clearly much is – jobs, status,and influence being among the major items. And it’s not minorities, immigrants,or government that’s doing it: those are only scapegoats. Technology andglobalization are the more likely “culprits,” but they’re more difficult toblame. A thorough and sensitive analysis of this tendency towards prejudice isin William Cash’s classic The Mind of theSouth, (New York: Random House, 1941).  
So what to do? Obviously, I don’tknow. But there is a classic sociological principle that goes “Groups attackedfrom the outside tend to unify themselves.” That seems to be what theadministration is trying to do in making N. Korea into a (real) threat, and villainizingimmigrants. Another more helpful principle is that people of the widestpossible diversity can work together effectively on a goal to which all aspire.That’s the one thing that our society seems to be lacking, and which POTUStried to supply with his (empty) slogan. Maybe our facilitation colleaguescan help contribute to the development of a vision to which we can aspire.
Thanks again for initiating thisconversation.
John Epps
On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 8:23 AM, Ken Fisher via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:




Friends,
Both through recent experiences and 'our daily Rohr', I’d like to share with you my wording of a current secular ‘pater noster'.



Compassionate cosmos...In which we live,and with whom we find our meaning,Grace us with your presence.Support our freedom to be love as we are loved.Trusting in your never-ending hospitality,So be it.

And, as I have already shared, I love this poem by Hafiz.
The sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky.


Feeling the warmth of the sun (the immediate sustainer of our habitat) and wanting to ‘be sun too’,
Ken 
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