[James Brancheau]

I probably did misunderstand that, Julie. I'll blame graduate school (the classes the poetry professors warned us not to take). I think the correct way to look at it is that there's beauty and ugliness in every culture. As cheesy as that sounds, it's true. At least from my experiences. (Maybe I became too aware of the ugliness of American (US) culture, which prompted me to leave. But, also, Koreans, for example, can be extraordinary xenophobic. Actually, worse than that, depending on where you live. Which has a lot to do with being invaded 1000 times, probably. Doesn't make me more likely to live there...) I think there's a hesitation to be frank, honest, about "culture" and, as I've mentioned, I think, a real confusion between race and culture. Which confounds me. Some of that was most likely off-topic, but, that's me.

But, yeah, the short response is that I probably jumped too quickly on your post. Carry on.