Today, we stayed at home and relaxed (if you believe this, you haven’t been reading this blog), did laundry, bookkeeping, downloading pictures, blog writing and, yes we got our daily walk in too. You got it, a typical relaxing day in the RV with Nancy and Gary.
Meanwhile, it might seem as if the two subjects in the blog title might have absolutely no relation to each other but, no, they are both examples of our American way of life: both exemplify the best of America.
And, since we did ‘nothing’ productive, I’ve got an interesting answer to a question that has been nagging at all of you for a long time: why are manicurists Vietnamese? Isn’t that what you’ve always wondered? Well, maybe I’ve not been sitting around wondering why this is true but I have noticed when I walk through a mall that there are a lot of Vietnamese in the Nail Salons. And, today, with a little bit of time to read interesting stories on the Internet, I’ve got an answer - found o Yahoo news which got it from the BBC. So, to summarize:
It all goes back to Tippi Hedron, the actress. About 40 years ago, she was very interested in helping Vietnamese refugees in and around California where she lived. She visited a refugee camp near Sacramento and met with a group of 20 women, trying to figure out a trade that they could do to support themselves and also be able to send money back to Vietnam to help their families. She suggested several trades: stenography, typists, seamstress but they were more interesting in looking at her fingernails.
Then she had the ‘aha’ moment as in ‘aha, they could be manicurists.’ And, she brought in her own manicurist and got a local beauty school to volunteer trailing so that these women could learn how to give a perfect manicure. These 20 women all learned and it just grew from there. And, Yahoo says ‘today, the nail industry is worth $8 billion, and 80 percent of nail technicians in Southern California are Vietnamese (51 percent across the U.S.). Many of them are direct descendants of the 20 women Hedron met with that fateful day in Sacramento, according to the BBC.’
What a great story about how to succeed in America.
Now, how about the demonstrations? A few days ago, we went into DC to visit a few museums but also to check out the Supreme Court - where they were hearing arguments for and against Gay Marriage. We thought it would be a great opportunity to see something we have only seen on TV. And, did we ever.
By the time we got to the Supreme Court, the sidewalks in front were filled with demonstrators - from both sides. It was a peaceful demonstration of what makes democracy in America work. Both sides were present, both with signs and chants. Both peacefully exercising their American rights of free speech.
The police were out but mostly in the background, except for these two.
We hung around for a while, reveling in the very American activity of demonstrations and free speech.
There you have it - 2 examples of America at its finest. Sometimes I wish that stories like these could get more attention on TV and radio than stories about how dysfunctional things can often be. Are the stories about dysfunction important? Absolutely, but let’s have a bit of balance.
‘Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. ‘
Father Larry Lorenzoni
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