I just happened to see this in the Philadelphia City Paper...Lord knows some of you could use it:

Zen Meditation Sitting Group
The group welcomes anyone who wishes to sit with others in silent, compassionate awareness. Every Mon., 7pm. Free. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 215.978.4838

I hope that most of this is in fun. I find in hard to belive that you can hate someone you've never met. But, being an old man from deep south I guess it can happen. Talk about maybe a dumbass, when went into Army at 16 I knew nothing about shit. I remember a train ride between Mannhiem & Amsterdam. A lady was in car w/me, a hillbilly from W.VA and a polock? We stopped some where, I asked if she would like something. No she said. "They killed millions of my people here. I won't spend a dime."
So we got off & I asked my friends "boy she must have had a lots of kin folks." Alan told me she was a kike. What the hell is that? A Jew, what's that?

All in good humour, of course :)

Are you asking what a Jew is??

No was just stating how unworldly I was at that moment it time. I have been To Dachu, and seen the ovens. Over 40 years ago. Not too bad for a redneck?

Ah. Not bad. Everyone should visit, keeps history alive and reminds us not to let it happen again.

What buster was describing was a not unusual experience for Americans some years back.

Actually not so many years. (Shut up Sycamore, you're ruining my point.)

I remember as a child in the Chicago Suburbs seeing the first Jewish Kids enrolled in my elementary school ... and at the time that my family moved East, we still didn't have any Blacks.

What Wolf said is very true. I went to American military schools on different army bases, so I came into contact with other children who happened to black or hispanic there, but when I started in a new elementary school OFF post, there were no black kids to be found. I met a Jew for the first time in my senior year of high school when one tranferred into my class because his family had moved here from back East somewhere. We were all very intrigued by him (he was kind of cute, too!) ;)

I'm starting to find it pretty strange that most threads being used for insults turn into threads about history...

When I lived in upstate NY, there were 0 black (or any other minority for that matter) children enrolled in my school. There weren't any black adult residents of the town. There was a protestant church, a catholic church and a masonic temple. There were jews but I think most were summer-only residents.

*just for context, the closest McDonald's was at least an hour away in either direction.

That's because we are all a bunch of nerds.

oO(Did that count as an insult?)

The polock I was speaking about was from chi-Town. Hell no I couldn't spell his name on a dare. :dead: One of the ovens. sorry photo I know.

.

God, that makes me sick. Hatred is so corrosive and that's exactly where hatred ends you up going! I hearby apologize to everyone I've written an even slightly unkind response to, hell, even LJ.