Strangers among us

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

I’ve lived long enough to see a complete cultural shift. When I was a child, people went to extraordinary lengths to assimilate into the local culture. The children with whom I went to school dressed alike, had similar haircuts, wore the same kinds of shoes and so forth. The African-American children dressed the same as the caucasian children.  

Nearly all family practices were the same. We all wanted to be the same. I remember begging my mother for white high-top tennis shoes like the other boys wore. She disagreed, saying the white tops looked dirty quite quickly. I was condemned to black tops.

About the time I reached my 20s, this all changed. People began wearing clothes that fit their heritage. The homogenous Americans were no more. People often dressed differently and wore their hair in distinctive styles from each other. There became an attitude of respect for people expressing their individuality. 

Then, comes the crowd that is downright rebellious. We are seeing them now – folks who have come here and demand we change our ways to their culture and religious practices.  

No, that is not the way it works here. You can have your practices, and I can have my practices, but don’t – either of us – attempt to force our practices on the other.

I am half Dutch. If I want to go around dressed like the gentlemen on the Dutch Masters cigar box, that would be my choice, not yours. I suspect that it would get me some funny looks but probably would not cause any other remarks.

On the other hand, if I belonged to a religion that had certain practices and I decided not to follow them, I should expect them to ask me to leave if I did not follow those practices. There is a religion headquartered in Salt Lake City, for instance, that frowns on the consumption of alcohol, coffee and tea. I would expect them to ask me to leave if I did. In fact, why would I want to stay if I indulged in these prohibitives?  

Then, we come to Lindsay Graham. He was a bachelor all his life. Many have thought he must have been homosexual. There is no evidence of this. A day after he died, the information that has come out on his entire life looks like he was the simple “straight arrow” that he was.  

He was worth about $1.4 million, a very modest sum in Congress. He didn’t have any investment in individual stocks. When his parents became wealthy enough, they moved into a house trailer. They had been living in the back of their grocery store. When his parents died, he adopted and raised his younger sister.  

Were Congress – were society – full of people like Lindsay Graham, a man who loved this country and spent his life building it up, not tearing it down.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.