Au revoir

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jan 18, 2015 at 08:18

HI, Charlie

I'm an American like you, not a Frenchie like "Udontknow...", so I can understand a bit of where you're coming from -- something "Udon't..." is apparently clueless about.

What I understand, and what "U" doesn't seem to know, is that we have "No Go" zones in the US, not to different from those in France. My family and I spent much of our lives on the fringe of such areas, and several years in them.

Our "No Go" zones, of course, have a core of minority groups such as Blacks and Hispanics, rather than Muslims. I grew up in a fairly big city, and everyone I knew had an intuitive sense of where the boundaries were. I imagine every major American city has such zones, and it would be a courtesy to travellers if the local chambers of commerce could be prevailed upon to provide maps with the areas clearly marked. They are dangerous places, even though our police, unlike the French, are not afraid to enter them.

It's shocking that a government should abandon 8% of its people, leaving them vulnerable in such places. I think it's also shocking, that honest Jews in Israel are not allowed to go about their daily lives without fear of being attacked or molested, or having rockets launched against them. I raised my children next door to a cocaine addict and two child molesors, with drive-by shootings and gang fights in the street -- and at that, we were actually outside the "red line". It was an interesting life, wherein we had to step over alcoholics sleeping on the sidewalk, to pick up our daughter at the bus stop; but I can't imagine what a horror it must be for those Frenchmen, to have to live in such a place without police protection.

I was raised, being taught by school teachers, TV, etc. that mankind was somehow "advancing" from more primitive, and presumably more dangerous, times. Unfortunately, we are not advancing in this way. Jesus taught the people with parables, stories taken from everyday life. One of those stories was of the "Prodigal Son", who took in a traveler who had been beaten and robbed, and left to die along the road. Another Bible story was of a Levite traveling through a town in the tribal area of Benjamin, whose young wife was gang-raped and left to die on his host's doorstep. Those stories are sadly applicable today, in minute detail; the only real differences being that now they would take place in a backdrop of automobiles and convenience stores.

"Udontknow..." noted that most people in those "no-go" zones live their lives with the hope of some day getting out of them. I imagine they do; and that's probably as true in the US as in France. I actually loved some of the squalid places I lived in, especially the neighborhood where I raised my children; because I had also grown up there in somewhat better times. The main reason I eventually moved out, was that I was getting chronically depressed; and the reason I was depressed was that my church was falling apart -- the brethren were foreclosing on their homes and quitting the neighborhood, as they were able, and leaving the area. It was a case of "The last one out, turn off the lights".

Ah, Europe! Would that they could fly away from the present, evil day, and return to the days of Oliver Twist and Les Miserables! Oh, I guess they have. C'est la vit!

We have our slums, and they have theirs.

Our reservoir.

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