Alabama - God's country

[Peeps]

You got that the wrong way round.

People liberals disagree with need to change their views so liberals can tolerate them.

Well, gawwww-lly!

And when that happens, peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars!

 

[meltzerboy2]

Yes, if you travel outside the major cities up North, including New York State, you will find a lot of patronizing and hypocrisy toward people who do not belong to your group.

 

[Peeps]

West Virginia would be another example. When you drive through West Virginia, you will see signs and billboards all over the place exhorting the reader on matters of simple Christian piety and holiness. I was very inspired by this and pointed out to my son that such reinforcement is how a Christian society should work.

Many years ago, I took a stressful road trip from North Carolina back to Northern Illinois to help my invalid mother after surgery. I brought my 18-month old daughter along.

While I was driving through West Virginia in the twilight hours, I took an exit for a bathroom break, and then got confused about how to get back on the Interstate. Those mountains can be really disorienting to a Midwesterner used to flat lands and a view that stretches for miles! I couldn’t even find the place I had stopped for the bathroom!

I stopped at a little gas station–not a chain, but a home-grown station, all gray and weatherbeaten, with several men sitting outside.

When I asked for directions, one of the men jumped up and said, “I’ll get in my truck, and you just follow me!”

So I did, and within a few minutes, I was waving goodbye to my good shepherd and safely back on the Interstate!

I’ve never forgotten that simple act of kindness in the State of West Virginia.

 

[meltzerboy2]

It’s a little like “Our Town” or “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Nothing wrong with that, so long as “humble piety” is practiced rather than self-righteousness. Sometimes urban living is tedious and too impersonal, and we long for more simplicity and neighborliness in our lives.

 

[Peeps]

I know it’s a fantasy, but I would love take Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on a long road trip around the U.S.A. and spend all of our time visiting the small towns and small cities and talking to the people who live there.

I think that she has been raised in a very “small” area of the country and does not know how many of her fellow Americans live their daily lives and earn their daily bread.

I think it would be fun to sit down with her at the restaurant where my brother, a welder, hangs out, or at the little factory restaurant that his boss built and all the workers hang out–it seats around 20 people, and serves some of the best sandwiches in the city.

I would love to take her to the County Fair, a true farm fair, and let her talk to the farmers who show their cows and pigs and corn and homemade jams and jellies made from fruit grown on their 80 acre farms that have been in their family for over a century.

I would love to take her to that little gas station in West Virginia. Or to Decorah, Iowa, where a fast food store clerk told us that can be working all alone and take a bathroom break, and come out to find 3 or 4 people waiting at the cash register to pay for their goods. (In our city, that same clerk would come out to find 3-4 gang members stealing everything in the store, and they would probably shoot her for good measure.)

I would love to take her down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where I learned that razorback hogs aren’t just a mascot for a university, but they really exist and terrorize farmers by killing livestock and can only be killed with a special kind of rifle that many of our lawmakers are seeking to ban.

There are many places in the U.S. that I haven’t been, but at least I know that they exist. I think it would do Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a world of good to know the people that she is claiming to speak for, the people who live in “God’s Country,” or in “Our Town”, or who really do have a “Wonderful Life” and want to keep that life.

 

[meltzerboy2]

I think Rep. Ocasio-Cortez grew up in The Bronx, as did I. The Bronx has a checkered history, and it has something in common with the small towns you mention, that is, it too has been stereotyped, in this instance as consisting mainly of gangs and violence. Not so, as I can tell you from personal experience growing up in this borough of New York. And I think Ocasio-Cortez knows this too. There are a majority of hard-working people who have lived and are presently living in The Bronx, who have the same hopes and dreams for themselves and their families as all Americans have. I agree with you, though, that more exposure to the communities and neighborhoods across America would open the eyes and mind and heart of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to the needs and aspirations of people whom she has probably had little or no contact with.

 

[skelly]

You’re wrong. As far as who said blacks and Jews need to watch their backs on Alabama. That’s not the case at all.

 

[Bradskii]

Bradskii:

Maybe you should look up the definition of infertile.

No, I believe we all are aware of that.
Perhaps you should look up the Catholic Church teaching on marriage.

I know it very well. I was wondering why you were talking about reproduction and birth when the subject was infertile couples.

 

[phil19034]

(he is not religious). However, they thought it amusing that he would not eat shrimp or pork.

I would guess that they found it “amusing” because he’s not religious.

My wife is Jewish, and I often find it amusing when a non-observant Jewish individual (or even an atheist-Jewish person) selectively pick & choose kosher rules.

My father-in-law is a perfect example. He loves to eat ham, but there are a number of things he won’t eat because he’s Jewish. Sometimes I love calling him out because he eats ham/pork and says he didn’t believe in God. So I sometimes get a little chuckle out of it and he acknowledges that he’s totally inconsistent.

My mother-in-law is similar. She will cook and eat pork chops but won’t eat ham because “Jews don’t eat ham,” and won’t eat cheeseburgers. When I call her out on the pork chops, she’s usually like “oh, that’s right!”

I don’t disrespect it, I simply find it amusing.

But I totally respect those who legitimately keep kosher (even though I religious disagree with the need).

It truly is funny how historically religious practices & customs impact us - esp regarding the non-religious.

God Bless

 

[phil19034]

“God’s country” is an affectionate term used by some Americans to refer to those areas, commonly rural ones, where there is a decent, simple quality of life, pleasant physical surroundings, and the people generally reflect goodness and humble piety.

It also refers to places where they is an abundance of plant life. Whether farm land or untouched natural areas like forests.

 

[13pollitos]

I actually think this is more likely to happen up North.

The only place that I have lived where I ever really felt like I had to “watch my back” was in Michigan (Upper peninsula specifically). So yes, I agree with you.

I lived longer in Alabama than anywhere else in my life. Missouri is a very close second.

 

[Pattylt]

When I left Judaism behind it was still quite awhile before I could eat pork products and shellfish. I realized I was being ridiculous so bought and cooked some bacon. Loved it. I tried ham and almost threw up! I realized it was psychological when I had a delicious sandwich that turned out to be pulled pork. I’d go to Chinese restaurants and tell people to not tell me what was in it until after I ate it. I found out I love shrimp! Now, I’ll eat it all but it took baby steps.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

When I left Judaism behind it was still quite awhile before I could eat pork products and shellfish. I realized I was being ridiculous so bought and cooked some bacon. Loved it. I tried ham and almost threw up! I realized it was psychological when I had a delicious sandwich that turned out to be pulled pork. I’d go to Chinese restaurants and tell people to not tell me what was in it until after I ate it. I found out I love shrimp! Now, I’ll eat it all but it took baby steps.

We recently had an unexpected death in the neighborhood, and I suggested to my family that it might be a good thing to take the widowed husband some of our dinner, the main course of which was pork chops. I then pointed out, though, that he was raised Jewish, non-practicing, went to the Lutheran church with his wife, but that even though he was non-practicing, he might be put off by pork being served.

I used the analogy of serving horsemeat to my family, which I would not find objectionable but they would — they view it as gross and disgusting. Do Jews, even those who are non-practicing or who convert to Christianity, have any aesthetic objections to eating pork based upon their upbringing?

 

[Pattylt]

Do Jews, even those who are non-practicing or who convert to Christianity, have any aesthetic objections to eating pork based upon their upbringing?

It is so ingrained in the psych that many never get over it. My step mother no longer keeps strict kosher but still won’t touch pork or shellfish. She can’t even stand the smell. But it varies.

I read once that the original prohibition on pork might have been due to the similarity of a pig vs. a human fetus being so similar. Who knows? I don’t know that there has ever been a consensus on why kosher prohibitions came about. The old question of is it kosher because God said so or God said so because they already didn’t eat it!

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I read once that the original prohibition on pork might have been due to the similarity of a pig vs. a human fetus being so similar. Who knows? I don’t know that there has ever been a consensus on why kosher prohibitions came about.

That’s interesting. I’ve never heard that one before.

I have always seen kosher as being largely a health consideration. Pork and shellfish are not the most healthful things you can eat, and there are food safety issues with pork — you shouldn’t eat it unless it has been thoroughly cooked. Many of the Jewish laws seem oriented towards keeping the people clean and healthy.

 

[Bradskii]

nightshade:

Please do. We love living here. The Grotto and the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament are amazing. The Diocese of Birmingham Alabama is a great place to be Catholic in the South. Lots of great parishes and Catholic schools. There is Our Lady Help of Christians in Huntsville which is 100% Extraordinary form. Also St Michael’s in St Florian that was never renovated during the 70s.

Thanks for that (name removed by moderator)ut.

I’m from Europe and would like to vacation in Alabama, maybe next year. But I’m not sure which is the best part to go. Can you recommend anything? I’m especially interested in places with history, old colonial buildings, nice churches etc. Maybe staying in an old fashioned bed and breakfast and eating typical southern food. maybe somewhere where I can sit on a porch in a rocking chair. Somehow that’s how I imagine Alabama to be like, but maybe I’m totally wrong.

Mobile is great. Montgomery for olde worlde and Civil Rights. And Huntsville, as someone has mentioned, is a nice place. You just GOTTA go to the Space Museum there. Grab a beer in a local’s bar nearby: Death or Taxes. They have an axe throwing cage!

 

[13pollitos]

I know a family of Mexican Jews. We were making tamales for a birthday party and I made sure I made chicken tamales since they were coming. Now, we all eat chicken and we all enjoyed them, but I had to laugh when the dad mentioned how he prefers pork tamales.

A neighbor from Morocco was raised Muslim. He has mentioned that he won’t eat pork and he finds it highly disgusting to even smell it. He is not religious as far as I know.

 

[Pattylt]

One thing to point out…if a Jew keeps strict kosher, they won’t eat anything you prepare. Your kitchen isn’t kosher. Kosher is much more that not eating certain foods, it’s also keeping separate dishes and utensils separate as well as strict separation of meat and milk in the recipes. I fondly remember my first taste of goyim gravy! Wonderful!

It IS good though to understand that, even though someone no longer keeps kosher, they may still have problems with pork and shellfish. Asking is always appropriate! Most, but certainly not all, non practicing Jews do eat pork and shellfish after a while. But, like me, it can take time.

 

[vz71]

I was wondering why you were talking about reproduction and birth when the subject was infertile couples.

Actually, the topic is “Alabama - God’s country”

You decided to reply to a tangent a couple of times before realizing your untenable position.

 

[DaveBj]

Despite all this, I wouldn’t exactly feel comfortable living in Alabama even today because I believe Jews as well as Blacks still have to watch their back.

Your believing needs updating. The county where I live now was known to be a center of KKK activity back in the '50s and '60s. I moved here in '02, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that interracial (a word that I hate) couples and blended children are all over the place. And if I want to hear antisemitic language spoken, I have to go on-line, because I certainly don’t hear it among my acquaintances and friends.

It might be you who are clinging to some old prejudices – against Alabamians.

D