The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side!

People are always trying to win arguments by using race, color, class, living standards, ethnic groups, or sex. That is because the grass is always greener on the other side that the people know nothing about. That is why the definition of an expert in any subject is “a person from out of town.” For example, you know because of your prejudice that everyone living in your area knows nothing about the subject in question so you have to get the information from someone in say -- Japan, China, New York, LA, or Denver. Susie, the homeless lady, is not credible about the subject because she has no home, no money, and smells. You hear the same thing that Susie told you yesterday from Michele Obama. Mrs. Obama’s information must be correct even though Susie said the same thing. Susie for some reason is still wrong.

A Black woman called me over the weekend and told me Black people can’t run the City of Harrisburg. We need more people in the Jewish Community running the city because the Jewish people know how to stick together. Another Black lady called me and told me that Black people don’t know how to stick together because they want to follow the White Man all the time. Then I heard from another Black Woman who thinks that the City should be run by International people brought from outside the City of Harrisburg because no one here Black or White knows what they are doing.

Black people are not the only ones that do this. A family made up of 70 people of Pennsylvania Dutch, German, and Susquehanock Native American descendents surprised me with a birthday cake and gifts in Northern Pennsylvania on Easter Afternoon. They are considered White people among their neighbors. One woman asked me why she was a very white person while her father and a few of her Aunts and Uncles were darker. Some of her cousins were also dark. No one was as dark as me. But the majority of them were very white. One of her Uncles started suggesting that this line of talk was going to make me think that this family was not worthy of my friendship because I may think that I am better than they are.

I was shocked about 11 years ago when I ran for Pa. State Representative. One woman of Japanese decent came up to me and thanked me for running for office. She claimed that I was running to represent people like her who are kept down by the controlling classes.

When I worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in the 1980s, the management from England and the US were talking about how well the Japanese ran their companies. I had to sit in many meetings where the guest speaker was from some company in Japan. Then we had to try to use their methods in our management. If these brainiac managers would have waited 5 to 10 years, they would have seen that the Japanese economy was stagnant and that the Japanese were moving their production lines to China and India. After seeing the Japanese Economic Disaster, I said to some of my former workers, “So much for the Japanese way of doing things.”

With an economy only 20% as large as the US, I hear that the Chinese will be taking over the world economy soon. But I heard my High School History teacher tell us the same thing in the 1960s. My high school history books, written in the 1950s, told me that the US was obsessed with the “China trade” since the beginning of the 19th Century. But the Chinese have to control their currency to keep imported goods from over running the country. That is because the Chinese think that everyone else makes better products than they do.

Why did Columbus come to America in 1492? It was because he was trying to find a way to the Far East to set up trade and make money. Why? Because the people in the Far East made “good stuff” and the people in Europe didn’t! After World War II everyone in the world wanted to buy an American car because we made cars so well. Boy did that change in the 1980s!

It doesn’t matter who you are, the grass is always greener than it is in your back yard. It does not matter if you are talking about the City of Harrisburg, the United States, or the world. If you don’t know the people, then they must know what they are doing. People you know never do!