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From: Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Hit and run of multiple cyclists
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2025 12:20:06 -0500
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On 3/8/2025 9:04 AM, AMuzi wrote:
> On 3/7/2025 10:56 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>>
>> That wasn't the case when my parents and I arrived in the USA via
>> Ellis Island in about 1953.  This was the tail end of Senator Joe
>> McCarthy and the Red (Russian) Scare:
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism>
>> the HUAC:
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee>
>> and the associated cold war Communist witch hunts.  From my parents
>> point of view, and from that of most immigrants from Europe, the
>> committee was a copy of Hitler and Friends had done before WWII.  If
>> you were a socialist, communist, gypsy, anarchist, or even a pacifist,
>> you would be "denounced" by the committee or by some random person,
>> and deported to some place unpleasant.
>> <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/denounce>
>> "to tell someone in authority about a person's illegal activities,
>> especially illegal political activities"
>>
>> No trial was needed.  For the freshly minted immigrants to the USA,
>> this was a very real concern (or fear).  My parents and friends were
>> seriously worried.  I was also worried, but because I really didn't
>> understand what was happening, I just followed their example.  For a
>> time, we became very wary of neighbors, police, officials, anyone in
>> authority, etc.
>>
>> My extended family did their best to try and "fit in" and become an
>> American.  We learned to juggle the knife and fork like Americans,
>> instead of just holding the fork in the left hand and the knife in the
>> right.  We spent quite a bit of effort learning to read and write
>> English and understand American slang.  At the time, I was a 5+ year
>> old and had no difficulty learning all the languages required to
>> communicate with the neighbors, relatives, schools, and of course, the
>> Americans.  However, in public, all the immigrants made it a point to
>> only speak English.  My original native languages were German and
>> Polish, which my insisted should only be spoken indoors at home or at
>> a relatives house.  Anywhere else, it was "speak English or say
>> nothing".
>>
>> This is 2nd hand from various relatives.  None of the immigrants spoke
>> about "rights".  If they were Jewish, and lived in the wrong
>> countries, they literally had no rights.  Having rights in the USA
>> seemed so improbable to some immigrants that they literally did not
>> believe that it was possible.  I was told that one immigrant received
>> a summons for some minor legal matter.  My parents caught up with him
>> as he was busy disposing of his possessions and preparing to leave the
>> country.  He explained that it was better to leave than to get thrown
>> in an American concentration camp.
>>
>> I can go on forever with such stories but I would prefer to do
>> whatever I did on Friday evening before I discovered computers.  I
>> think it's sufficient to say that being an immigrant can be a very
>> traumatic experience, full of bad information and misinterpretations.
>> It's no surprise that they do strange and difficult to explain things.
>>
>>
> 
> I believe you but experiences vary a lot.
> 
> All four of my grandparents immigrated at the beginning of the 1900s, 
> lived in Italian neighborhoods and spoke little English. They were 
> Resident Aliens, not citizens, all their lives. (in the 20th century, 
> aliens had to register annually but there were few or no other 
> impediments to their lives).
> 
> In 1934, my eldest aunt on my mother's side wrote to the President, as 
> my grandfather's work was cut to half time and he was very close to 
> losing his house for nonpayment. She was a sixth grader and the only 
> person in the family with adequate English. By whatever good luck, their 
> mortgage was extended. My mother and all her siblings voted straight 
> democrat all their lives.
> 
> p.s. all my uncles in both families served in WWII. My father, the 
> youngest, turned 18 as the war ended and did not.

My Polish grandparents arrived when your Italian ones arrived. They did 
become citizens, but they certainly suffered discrimination.

> Back to the original link, the subject of the cyclist's efforts are 
> illegal aliens, not actual immigrants.

There have been plenty of tales of legal immigrants and even U.S. 
citizens suffering arrest and imprisonment because they didn't look 
"American" enough - IOW white enough.


-- 
- Frank Krygowski