Re: [pf] ethics of travel

by Sharon Flesher

18 December 2000 23:09 UTC

Hi Molly,

Thanks so much for your comments!

Molly wrote:
> Obviously, you could "solve" this problem by living some place else, in
> an ethnically diverse urban (or non-urban) environment. You could also
> attend a black/white/Hindu/Moslem/whatever-you-are-not church or other
> group. Travel is not your only option here.

We've considered this option. But the lack of diversity is really the only
negative we find in our community. As far as finding diversity at home, we
could do a better job of seeking out opportunities, as limited as they are.
My son has one classmate who's a member of the Ottawa-Chippewa tribe, and
another who speaks Spanish. But diversity stops at ethnicity. They live
pretty much the same way he does -- in a comfortable house with electricity,
plenty of food, several changes of clothes, etc. Our town is not
particularly wealthy, but we don't really have any pockets of poverty. I
have volunteered at a soup kitchen for the past 6 years, and I've rarely
seen anyone come in with children. Unemployment is very low here, and it
seems that most people are able to feed and house their families at a basic
level of comfort.

It may be silly, but when I hear my son whining for various toys we're not
going to buy him or complaining about the food I serve, I want to take him
to a shantytown where children gather sticks for toys and are grateful for a
bowl of rice once a day. Maybe this goes back to when I was a child and I
refused to eat something and my mom started telling me about starving
children in China and I said, "Fine. Send mine to them."

> Aren't you now, living in the U.S.?

Good point. I first became aware of this in college, when I read "A Flag for
Sunrise" by Robert Stone. A couple in the novel were traveling in Central
America, witnessing the abject poverty. I will never forget a passage in
that book:

"What I wonder," Bob Cole said.. "is whether the people down here have to
live this way so that we can live the way we do."
"I'm just a soldier," Zecca said. "But I think the answer to that is no.It
sounds too simple to me."
"But it's not a simple question," Marie said brightly. "It's a really
complicated one."
Cole turned to Holliwell.
"How about you, sir? You're something of an expert. What do you think the
answer is?"
"I have to confess," Holliwell said, "that I haven't figured that out. There
are lots of gaps in my expertise. I don't know what the answer is."
"We have to believe it's no, don't we?" Cole asked. "We couldn't face up to
it otherwise. Because is most of the world lives in this kind of poverty so
that we can have our goodies and our extra protein ration -- what does that
make us?"
"It makes us vampires," Holliwell said. "It makes us all the cartoon figures
in the Communist press."
"What if you found out it were true?"
"Me? What I do doesn't matter. I'd go on doing what I'm doing."
"How about you, Captain?"
Zecca took one hand from the wheel and turned partway around toward Cole.
Marie kept her eyes on the road.
"What are you, Mr. Cole?" Captain Zecca asked. "Some kind of an agitator?"
He asked the question humorously, with more of Toledo in his voice than he
usually permitted.
"Not at all," Cole said.

(OK. I looked it up. My memory isn't THAT good!)

> No, I'm sure it's not possible. It's not possible to live and be totally
> benign.

Another good point.


Sharon