Tea and Politics

Do you like the title of this post?  Don't worry as I'm not intending to ruffle your feathers going into politics or religion or other taboo subjects.  But, I thought you might enjoy a bit of something different than my current knitting project (which by the way, is going well).

My dear daughter Heidi took me to tea recently in honor of Mother's Day.  We had a fabulous time at a little tea house near our homes.  Here's Heidi above trying on a lovely hat.  She's going to a wedding next summer in England and wants to wear a hat!  We had a wonderful afternoon of Mother/Daughter bonding.

The tea itself was delightful.  I chose the Queen Catherine blend of tea by Harney and Sons.  It was loose tea, my favorite vs teabags. And, the little tea sandwiches were amazing.  After our tea, we had a nice time perusing the surrounding shops and garden shops.  It was a most fun afternoon.

There's lots of beautiful jackaranda trees in the area where I live.  I read somewhere that the falling of these beautiful flowers is called purple snow.  My ballot for the California primary arrived in the mail this past week.  I thoroughly enjoyed filling it out and putting it in the mail.  I don't vote along a particular party line.  Is it just me, or did you feel that both Cruz and Rubio missed a vital chance to embrace the Hispanic vote?  Aren't they both fluent in Spanish?  I enjoyed the snippets Rubio shared of his Grandfather's life in Cuba.  It's too late now for both of them but their campaign strategies still puzzle me a bit.

  

Speaking of Spanish speaking, here's the article I read this morning.  Have you ever heard of anything so crazy; English only policy?  My family and I travel alot overseas and unfortunately, I only speak English.  I'm always amazed at the superb customer service I receive when someone speaks to me in English or offers me an English menu vs the regular menu.  What is wrong with people today?  To me this is just being polite to your fellow man.  When I go to Turkey they don't tell me to speak only Turkish!  America needs to wake up a little bit.  

And, the above can bring up the illegal immigrants etal problems.  I lived for 22 years in an agricultural community.  The irreplaceable Mexican migrant workers were a VITAL part of the community.  Without them, we wouldn't have all the produce/fruit on our tables.*  Fast forward to southern California....I live in south Orange county which does not have agriculture but we have vast areas of manicured landscaping, building industry and other businesses.  Most of these businesses are owned/managed by Mexican immigrants. And, they do a fabulous job.  Many of them have taught themselves English and have risen through the ranks to own their own businesses.  And, I am suppose to tell them to speak English only?  No way...  Which brings up another item; homeless camps.  Being from the Seattle area, Seattle has a huge homeless population.  Do you think these people in the homeless camps are Hispanic, Spanish speaking?  NO; they speak and look like me.  I really feel it's wrong when we attack a community of people different from us.  And by the way, in my own family are two naturalized US citizens whose primary language was not English. 

I guess to sum up my feeling, I don't like it when we judge or profile people who we may perceive are different from us.  It's happened to me in Egypt and here at church and it's not a good feeling.  Sorry for the rant on my part but sometimes I think I watch or read too much news :)

Have a wonderful weekend.  I'll be busy working on the lace border of my knitted shawl and I'll also hopefully have some exciting news to share with you soon....suspense; haha 

My best to you,

Pat

*It warms my heart when I read about Hispanic immigrant families who have attained their dreams here in America.  It warms my heart when I read about them graduating and attaining their goals here in their adopted country.  Because of their families sacrifice to move to a new country, their children are now doctors, lawyers, engineers, and scientists to name a few.  To me, that's what America is all about.   

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Amy'sFive on Friday . . .