https://www.smokeyjohns.com/ John isn't especially close to Kenosha (you have to drive all the way to Madison), but he has serious trophies from MN and TX.
I appreciate you guys chasing this down. I have some ... interesting relatives. Being able to show them that their “innocent bystander gunned down by that horrible 17yo terrorist” was something quite different than they thought has made a big difference in the quality of our discourse.
Bro... you and me be matched wavelengths.
George Carlin had a great skit on America being Advanced Citizenship. If you have to stand there and hyphenate your allegiance, than you have not embraced what it means to be an American Citizen.
I have a family friend who holds dual citizenship still, Polish and American. She describes herself as the same... Polish-American. She has expressed on several occasions, and more so as of late with all of the riots going on, that if given the chance she'd move back to Poland. While she is a mostly pleasant person (she is Polish after all, they're a bit... bossy ) I can honestly say that when she expressed her considerations for moving based on "police shooting all these people" I wanted to tell her to pack her fucking bags and i'll buy her the 1-way ticket myself. If you think Poland is so much better (and the "in Poland we never did X" statements have been more frequent as of late) then leave. No one will stop you.
/rant
As someone with a Polish grandmother and a half Polish mother, I can absolutely confirm that statement is understated.
Truth is, sometimes there can be a bit of survivorship bias for the Old Country for a lot of immigrants. One can forget all the bad crap that made one leave in the first place, and just remember all the good things and good times.
A lot of damnyankee carpetbaggers do the same thing in Florida, especially when it comes time to vote.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
I will admit they probably have better pierogies over there.
(Growing up alongside a friend with a Polish mother...I completely understand. She was also a concentration camp survivor...I rarely saw her smile. His father, a Brit, who was actually part of the liberating forces at Bergen-Belsen, was wholly opposite and a complete cutup.)
There's nothing civil about this war.
I have Polish in-laws and appreciate a fine pierogie. In fact, a new pierogie restaurant has just opened up near me. Fine food! I'm a quarter Polish but one has to realize that the Polish Catholic population and the Polish Jewish population have a very troubled past. The former has a good bit of denial of their role in the treatment of the latter during and after WWII. The current government, IIRC, was passing a law making it a crime to mention this history. It is also reviving the old prejudices and starting campaigns against LGBT communities and acts in an authoritarian manner. Eastern European countries don't have a stable history of democracy and acceptance.
Such is thread drift.
Thomas Massie put in his two cents.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mass...straint-2020-9
One of my students just went back to Poland (she was an au paire here) and we discussed politics a fair amount while she was here for 2 years. Let's just say that Poland is way right of Trump. They have a VERY religious right that is barely accepting of small portion of the LGBTQ community, so.....let's not over romanticize the past, our past relationships, or how much better every other country is doing b/c TDS/OMB.
Fairness leads to extinction much faster than harsh parameters.