It is safe? and The German Look

Of course, I picked up the Is is safe? question from the movie, The Marathon Man, and then I was introduced to the German Look by the book, In the Garden of Beasts Erik Larson. The last reference, if it unfamiliar to you, is about the habit Germans developed in the 1930’s of looking around to see who was watching/listening before they said anything about the politics of the time. That was because they were worried about the growing Nazi influence.

There are indications in this era that is the situation is reversed. Often, if anyone even asks for a clarification of terms, poses a philosophical question or simply asks to have something explained, the group of people opposed to the current administration are not inclined to say, “Well, let me give you my take on that matter.”

You can witness on the Internet social media sites that a lot don’t answer, but, in essence, proclaim, “You jerk.”

One example is the word immigrant. Yes, we are all immigrants to North America, but can you even wonder about contrasting that to immigrants to the United States. Many early settlers were emigrating to a newly discovered world. They came on sailing ships. During a century plus, they thought about, argued about, and probably came to fisticuffs about the idea of forming a new country. During that time, there was no talk of streets paved with gold.

I have ancestors on both sides of that divide – many came very early to escape religious persecution and the last one to come got here just in time for the Civil War, meaning he probably rode a train to where he enlisted in the Midwest. He was, I would say, an immigrant.

But I am only mentioning this on this obscure site because I just don’t feel like having a mob jump down my throat.

And one other thing, I have presented this thought in my own words, not in a meme posted on Facebook.