Comments on: Friday Talking Points -- What Next? Food Fights In The Cafeteria?

By: dsws

dsws — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 22:36:15 +0000

Trump shouldn't be able to make headlines just by calling people like me "vermin". Same shtick, different day. It isn't new, so it shouldn't be in the news. The media should have reported on the Republican debates (to take one salient example) as though Trump wasn't even there.

By: Mezzomamma

Mezzomamma — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 09:42:35 +0000

The Los Angeles county fairground, near where my maternal grandparents lived, was one of the camps. That was before my time, but an older colleague once told me that she sometimes went there to talk to a school friend through the fence.

I understand some of the internees were very bitter about the experience for the rest of their lives; it's more surprising that some were able to forgive, if not forget.

By: C. R. Stucki

C. R. Stucki — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 22:12:25 +0000

Mezzo

Many yrs ago I lived virtually next door to a former Japanese-American internment camp in Minidoka county Idaho. At the time those camps were created, I'd guess that Americans were largely unaware of what the Jews were being subjected to in Europe. Had FDR known about those camps, he'd have likely named ours 'Internment Resorts' or some such. But they definitely do constitute a dark stain on our history

By: Mezzomamma

Mezzomamma — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 18:45:17 +0000

CRS--The camps in South African may not have been intended to kill a significant part of the local population, but that was the result. Over-crowding and not providing adequate food, sanitation or rudimentary medical care will do that. Things get bad enough in crowded refugee camps, even when people are trying to establish or maintain decent conditions. I find it hard to believe that a Trump administration would even try to maintain decent conditions.

(I don't think things got so desperate in the detention centers for Japanese Americans during WWII, but I don't suppose conditions were pleasant in them. I understand that a lot of adults left the centers each day to continue in their original employment with employers who needed them. It's still nothing to be proud of.)

By: Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 18:14:25 +0000

CRS,

Well, that makes a lot of sense. But, we also have to understand that words have meaning and that some words have meaning thrust upon them and that some combinations of words strike fear into some people and, therefore, we should tend towards not using them in similar contexts.

Using 'concentration' and 'camps' together in the same sentence is a perfect example of this.

By: C. R. Stucki

C. R. Stucki — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 16:52:31 +0000

Linguistically speaking, it's totally ridiculous that the word "concentration" had to be exorcised from the English language due to the fact that in the process of committing genocide, the Nazis "concentrated" ethnic Jews into labor camps and extermination camps. We should still be able to 'concentrate' people into 'camps' for non-labor or non-extermination purposes.

By: Mezzomamma

Mezzomamma — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 05:39:58 +0000

On a lighter note, I'm always glad to see Jared Moskowitz turn up on my social media feed. He's very acute--and his remarks are often entertaining as well.

By: Mezzomamma

Mezzomamma — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 05:34:55 +0000

As you hint in TP5, Chris, 'mass detention' should be read as concentration.

Historical note: the first actual concentration camps were set up by the British in South Africa during the Boer Wars and were filled with non-combatants, so mainly women and children. They weren't labor camps or death camps, but nonetheless the death rate due to overcrowding and lack of sanitation was appalling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War_concentration_camps