Well, how fast do attitudes change where you live, LF? Or, for that matter, here at Mudcat? (How much are most of US amenable to being told when we are wrong and how we "should" be?)

Let's see. It was 1941-- about 65 years ago. How much change could one expect in a mere lifetime? I think the most one could expect would be the first few extreme swings of the pendulum. Real change can be calculated when the pendulum comes to a brief rest.

Black history month is in full swing here in the US, and this year there is a heavy emphasis on slavery times. A lot of us have no idea how really bad it was. Learning about it all is quite a good antidote to the "people should get over it" attitude. It was BAD, and it was YESTERDAY.

Where I live (now), change happens very slowly. I myself have been an agent for change most of my working life, so I used to rail about this till I got to know the community down deep. What I realize now is that change here happens at the rate people actually CAN change, process the changes, and incorporate the change in their values and actions.

"Change" and "justice" run in very different cycles, you see.... I've had to learn to take a longer view on justice, now that I've seen first hand how change actually works, and how the attitudes of intrinsically good people are so deeply woven into their individual identities.

What I can say is "bad" is all tied up, for the person with the attitude, in who they are, who they became-- while ensconced in love and caring. It unravels very, very slowly, or the person simply comes apart. We just are not wired as human beans to move through change very quickly. It's a bitch, but that's how it is.

~Susan