America first! Again!

[DFW]

In the news here in Germany, anyway.

Just when Europe was finally starting to turn its attention to other things than police killings in Minnesota, it's the Atlanta Police Department to the rescue. The USA was first in the headlines in the print and electronic news again for the Brooks killing in Atlanta.

Not that Europeans were planning to visit the USA in large numbers anyway this summer. Most can't due to Trump's "decree." But the few that can aren't exactly encouraged by news like this to go renew their ESTA status. Most of them would rather invest the €12 fee in a large pizza.

Too bad a nation can't sue a cop for defamation of character. SO many of us are better than this, but we all bear the guilt in the eyes of the world. We Democrats Abroad get asked repeatedly, "why can't you/didn't you do anything about it?" Nobody knows how that works better than the Germans.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The Germans know better than we do how well that works.

They have hindsight now, which was painfully obtained.

We do not, and we would not welcome it if it did knock on our door. We are fools.

[DFW]

2. It's not universal here, though. Unfortunately.

It's always the ones who were never there who are most affected. Both the ones who romanticize the Nazi era, and the ones who are most ashamed to have it as part of their collective past (sort of like some of us born in the U.S. south).

The daughter of one of our neighbors, now a doctor working in a hospital in Hamburg, was born in 1985. She told me that the worst thing the Nazis did to her was to rob her of the right to be proud of her nationality and culture. Our daughters escaped that only because they are bi-cultural, and thus choose to consider themselves to have inherited the best of both (wise decision).

[Old Crank]

3. DFW, wo bist du?

Wir leben in München.

We get grilled all the time also. Just today at my doctors office.....

[DFW]

4. Ich bin im Rheinland

Großraum Düsseldorf.

[Old Crank]

5. Schade

Wir gehen in drei Wochen nach Hamburg. Bremen und Leipzig.

Wie lange haben Sie in Deutschland leben? Es ist 5 jahren für uns. Ralph

[DFW]

6. Wir finden es auszuhalten

Meine Frau ist von hier. Ich habe lange gependelt, ständiger Wohnsitz seit 2011.

[Old Crank]

7. Mein Deutsch

Ist nicht so gut. Ich lerne aber langsam für mich.
I will be working on residency this summer. We moved here when my wife got a job. The weather isn't as good as near San Francisco but in many ways it has been nice to be here instead of there.

If you get down this way let me know and I'll buy you a bier.

[DFW]

8. I don't think I'll be in Bayern soon, but that can always change.

Let me have a menu option on the beer, though, if you don't mind. I can't stand the taste of it, and will go for a cold mineral water or tea with lemon any time!

(sorry to be so boring!)

[Old Crank]

9. Kein Problem,

Ich mag nie Bier auch.