3 ms·

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. You speak the truth. We're experiencing this very same thing now in Alabama. Or one could simply look at Florida. T

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. You speak the truth. We're experiencing this very same thing now in Alabama. Or one could simply look at Florida. Things aren't getting better here. The current GOP leadership is trying their best to be as regressive as possible. I feel like I am doing my son an incredible disservice by raising him in Alabama, but my wife refuses to leave while her mother is still living here.

ddingus 3y ago
Show him some alternatives. I grew up in a backward place too. The single most valuable thing I learned is what is really possible to do. I got to see that because I ended up helping people of means who took me aside and showed me a look outside the place I was living. For many, and this is true of my peer group, just knowing what is possible really mattered. Of course I left town, found work and married someone I thought highly of and got to work building a better life. Your son can do that too. Make sure he knows it.
- hollywood_court 3y ago
  I plan on showing him alternatives so he doesn't have to learn about them they way that I did. I moved out of my mother's home when I was 16 and I managed to graduate high school. But I left town two days after graduation and I've only been back three times in 24 years. Had I not left Alabama, and the US, I would have likely ended up just as bigoted and close minded as most of my family. The ten years I spent outside of the US allowed me to learn a completely different perspective and finally made me realize that my mother and my other family were wrong about so many things. My boy just turned five a few weeks ago and he's already travelled more than I did by the time I turned 21.
  - vik0 3y ago
    Mind sharing where you moved and how that prevented you from going to the road, from as you say: "just as bigoted and close minded as most of my family.", to whatever you became afterward? Do you think had you moved to another place in the US, a similar change would not have occurred, or did it have to be outside the US?
    - hollywood_court 2y ago
      I moved to the Caribbean for 10 years. Then on to SF and later PDX. I also spent about 6 months in both NYC and Chicago in between SF and PDX. Living in the Caribbean introduced me to so many different cultures. I ran a bar before I became a carpenter. My neighbors around my bar included people from India, Senegal, all over Europe, and Japan. I become close friends with a much older couple from Senegal and also an Indian family. They welcomed me into their homes and fed me and taught me about their music and food and such. I likely would not have had those experiences if I remained on the mainland.

ddingus 3y ago

Show him some alternatives. I grew up in a backward place too. The single most valuable thing I learned is what is really possible to do. I got to see that because I ended up helping people of means who took me aside and showed me a look outside the place I was living. For many, and this is true of my peer group, just knowing what is possible really mattered. Of course I left town, found work and married someone I thought highly of and got to work building a better life. Your son can do that too. Make sure he knows it.

hollywood_court 3y ago
I plan on showing him alternatives so he doesn't have to learn about them they way that I did. I moved out of my mother's home when I was 16 and I managed to graduate high school. But I left town two days after graduation and I've only been back three times in 24 years. Had I not left Alabama, and the US, I would have likely ended up just as bigoted and close minded as most of my family. The ten years I spent outside of the US allowed me to learn a completely different perspective and finally made me realize that my mother and my other family were wrong about so many things. My boy just turned five a few weeks ago and he's already travelled more than I did by the time I turned 21.
- vik0 3y ago
  Mind sharing where you moved and how that prevented you from going to the road, from as you say: "just as bigoted and close minded as most of my family.", to whatever you became afterward? Do you think had you moved to another place in the US, a similar change would not have occurred, or did it have to be outside the US?
  - hollywood_court 2y ago
    I moved to the Caribbean for 10 years. Then on to SF and later PDX. I also spent about 6 months in both NYC and Chicago in between SF and PDX. Living in the Caribbean introduced me to so many different cultures. I ran a bar before I became a carpenter. My neighbors around my bar included people from India, Senegal, all over Europe, and Japan. I become close friends with a much older couple from Senegal and also an Indian family. They welcomed me into their homes and fed me and taught me about their music and food and such. I likely would not have had those experiences if I remained on the mainland.