Yes, Will was a great man. My father, when he was a young man, had the opportunity to meet Will Rogers before the fatal flight to Alaska that took his life and that of Wiley Post. At the time, my grandfather had an air freight service to Alaska out of Seattle. In fact, it was that service that kept the family's head above water during the Great Depression. And it was at that small airport, which later became part of Boeing, where Dad met Mr. Rogers.

My father died about five years ago only a month or so after I came to China. He always understood and admired my affection for Asian culture and applauded my decision to come here to do my best to help the Chinese achieve their goals. When I look back at who my father was and, in the context of some of these recent threads, who the people were that he admired and/or respected, Will Rogers always comes to mind. His credo that you referenced was a great one. If only some of these posters could realize that such a love for humanity could actually apply to their lives here in China, it may negate their need to subject us to such dribble as has been making its way into this forum of late.

No one had to teach Will Rogers to foster a love for humanity - it came to him naturally. Perhaps having been taught his skill with a lariat by a freed slave may have helped, but I suspect that some people just come to that kind of love without the need of an outside stimulus. Maybe others need a better upbringing. Don't know for sure - I'm not a head doctor, but you would think that those who choose to live in and/or teach abroad would be possessed of at least a modicum of cultural sensitivity that in itself should be a precursor of a broader understanding. But I guess an acceptance of and love for that which is radically different from one's own sense of normalcy is hard to come by for some people.

These are tumultuous times - no doubt about it. My hope is that the intelligent ones among us can rise above that tumult and demonstrate the kind of love and patience that such people as Will Rogers demonstrated. I'd like to take about half the posters in this forum, Chinese and Westerners alike, and transplant them into some of the villages where I've spent some extremely worthwhile time. Yes, stick them there for awhile and hope that they'll at least temporarily remove their blinders, and then watch their reactions as they become the beneficiaries of some truly humanitarian behavior.

Yeah, I know, it may be too much to ask of them to s**t in a hole for awhile or to stray too far from McDonald's or KFC and eat humbly and uncomplainingly, but, well, it would sure do them some good if they could manage it.

I was once asked by one of my linguistics teachers in America who, by the way, was Chinese - born and educated in China except for her Doctoral work in Applied Linguistics in New York - why I was the only non-complainer in the class. The answer that I was the oldest one in the class was too easy, so after thinking about it for awhile I realized that my classmates had never faced any serious challenges, no barriers they had had to overcome. I think of that when I read all the insensitive tripe I read here in this forum. A bunch of spoiled brats who complain about their spoiled, bratty students.

Last night, I judged a speaking competition for the first year students at out college. While I sat there listening to them and noted their hopes and the pure emotion they brought to the stage, I thought about some of these people here in the forum who complain daily about their students and the Chinese education system and, well, you know the deal. Could they have sat there and listened and still complained about their ill mannered, inattentive students? Well maybe; they are, after all, quite lacking in terms of their ability to perceive reality.

Unfortunately, though, as a well intentioned and bright poster recently suggested, the least humanitarian among us, those who are slandering the Chinese and seem obsessed in some ways with carte blanche attacks, do so without the realization that their attitudes have the unfortunate effect of tarnishing the image of all of us Westerners. My hope is that they will do one of three things:
Grow up, shut up or, if finding themselves incapable of either or both of the former - leave quickly.