David C.
David C.
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Since we have no sense from these photographs of what these young people did, said, or experienced on these journeys, I’m nonplussed as to how you draw from these images the conclusion of “cultural insensitivity.” The shocked nuns, for instance, would be shocked on the Jersey Shore or on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, i.e. within the culture of these youngsters. The reading man no doubt is doing what many poor Indians do in that same place: reading. Is he culturally insensitive because, in this photograph, he isn’t serving or conversing with the people around him? How do you know he didn’t just finish doing that for several hours? I applaud the adventurous spirit of these young people and hope in our fearful, Trumprageous, politically correct times, there is still this spirit of venturing forth, of trying on new identities, of seeing how other people live, and, above all else, of not being afraid to make some mistakes, to look foolish (to hell with the “epic fail”), to be humanly, openly alive and imperfect.

    David C.

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    David C.