They Call the Wind Mariah

June 21, 2004 : 1:40 p.m.
Ou est la bibliotheque?

Where is the library, indeed. I may be needing it for its Learn-French-in-a-Week tapes. I know some French, studied it in school and loved it, but I could definately use a brush-up!

Why? Well, I am thinking of taking in a French Exchange student for a 3-week summer program. I honestly wouldn't have thought of it until M was a little older really, but there are a lot of kids waiting for homes in the area to host them for the 3-week period. Why me, you might ask, and why now? Well...why not?

The better question to ask might be, why is there such a shortage in homes to host only French Students? Not German, Italian, Chinese, etc. No shortages there...so why French?

Well...the answer is...because America has developed this hatred for anything French lately. Maybe not even lately, really Americans have stereotyped the French for years. But now it's gotten worse. And because of it these poor kids are waiting and waiting for families to take them in, and nobody is stepping up. It's political bullshit. These innocent kids who want nothing more than to experience a different culture, expand their horizons, open their minds. Yet we, the country they choose readily, don't want to do the same.

I'm sorry people, but come on. GET OVER IT. For years upon years I have listened to people make (rude) comments about how rude French people are, even though most of the people (not all, but most) had never even BEEN to France! And granted, maybe they aren't so friendly to Americans sometimes, but I think that's the exception, not the rule. And you know, I'm thinking Americans are pretty rude to them too, sometimes. Maybe one too many American hillbillies came bursting into their quaint little villages not knowing the language, demanding things as we Americans so like to do, not respecting the cultures of a country whose era is, in some people's eyes, long gone.

Now we have Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast and all that crap. Come on. Who are the rude ones, really? Now, normally I adore where I live. I am very proud of who I am and where I come from. I fly my flag and am proud of it (well, I fly it when the flagpole isn't broken due to horrific winds anyway...). But what it is? It is racism, it is bigotry, to judge a singular person, or even an entire people, by where they are from. And I am not proud of how racist our country is, I never have been. I thought it was getting smaller, but it has only changed it's mask.

So I am thinking I just might open my heart and my home to someone from the country I have loved for many years...so that someone might do the same someday for the country I have loved all my life.