Lengthy ethnic religious ceremony spurs discontent in Heights neighborhood

[rug]

By NICK REID
Monitor staff
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
(Published in print: Wednesday, October 7, 2015)

On the final morning of a weeklong Hindu religious ceremony in a Concord backyard – with dozens of attendees, long hours of amplified chanting and cars lined up on the lawn and street – a frustrated neighbor posted a sign.

In second-floor windows overlooking the Pembroke Road gathering, black writing on two sheets of white paper stated: “GO HOME.”

The message struck the celebrants on Monday as intolerant. Most of them are refugees who were thrown out of their home country, Bhutan. But the neighbors said it’s got nothing to do with religion or race.

Next-door neighbor Donna Marie Robie began drafting a letter to the city council, saying that issues between newcomers and longtime residents “need the city’s immediate attention and need to be corrected before they escalate out of control.”

http://www.concordmonitor.com/community/town-by-town/concord/18905472-95/lengthy-ethnic-religious-ceremony-spurs-discontent-in-heights-neighborhood

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1. Blatant Xenophobic Racism. Reminds me of a resturaunt here...

...that put up an "Iranians Not Welcome Here" sign some years ago.

I still remember the yahoos gathering by the hundreds shouting "Iranians Go Home!" just outside the Math Department.

I also remember a friend, who was married to an Iranian, being attacked in a dormitory elevator by 5 guys, suffering cuts and bruises and several broken ribs.

[rug]

2. That sign is what it all comes down to.

[Fumesucker]

3. It's not mere happenstance that the CIA uses music as a torture

Music you really don't like played loud for long periods is psychologically difficult to take.

I've dealt with noisy neighbors who wouldn't listen to reason before, I'd eventually have found something inspirational on the stereo, stuck the speakers in the window and given them a dose of their own medicine.

I'm sorry Fraa, I feel your pain I really do but my religion requires I listen to my prophetess turned to eleven on the loudest stereo I can afford at least five hours a night in order that my neighbors become properly enlightened so that they may reach their inner scream.

Oh, while you're here I'm soliciting donations to turn my garage into a speaker system and buy a megawatt amp to reach more converts, would you like to make a contriibution?

[rug]

4. As to the "Go Home" sign, your thoughts?

[Fumesucker]

5. Looks like someone was frustrated and hadn't had the benefit of years on DU

Years on DU in order to hone their rhetoric to a shiny and inoffensive patina.

FWIW I'm a child of immigrants so I have a little sympathy for the overly loud neighbors. How were they supposed to know that a week of chants might upset the neighbors? Everyone did it back home and thought it was cool.

[rug]

6. But that someone did have the benefit of knowing the person was already home.

[Fumesucker]

7. I thought there was quite a crowd?

Go Home has more than one meaning, you seem to be taking the least charitable one as a given.

I know I'm glad when the neighbor's noisy guests finally decide to depart for home.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026279173

[rug]

8. Yes. I'm sure that's what that hand-scrawled sign meant.

She was solicitous of her neighbors' rest.

[Fumesucker]

9. It's good to see you practicing the least popular heavenly grace

I'm impressed, so many Christians talk a great game but fall down in the execution phase.

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10. FYI (from the aricle)

She decided to branch off and create her own group, which has been joined by more than 160 people. Concord Concerned Citizens is described as “a civil, open place where freedom of speech is tolerated” and people can discuss concerns in their neighborhood “without being called bigots, haters, etc.”

People were upset, she said, because they felt that immigrants were receiving preferential treatment over longtime residents, while not being held to the same standards.

“They’re driving in better cars than me, they’re building new homes, they’re getting credit cards, that’s the issue that a lot of people are concerned about. That’s not my concern. My concern is the fact that if you are in America, you toe the line to the laws and regulations, just as your neighbors,” she said.

After she posted her letter, local commenters amplified her frustrations, saying, “Where I live, we Americans are the minority,” and, “It’s true you can’t say anything or you are considered racist.”

Robie explained about the “disconnect” between the image many people have of refugees and what they’re seeing from those moving to Concord.

“It is hard to grasp for most U.S. citizens when they have their own struggles to make ends meet, are not just handed ‘benefits,’ work hard, pay taxes, when they see groups walking up and down Loudon Road all day or driving brand new cars, having digital iPhones, are able to secure bank loans to build new homes, having credit without jobs, and then basically start taking over existing neighborhoods,” she said. “This community means a lot to me, and that’s why I’m so upset. It’s really going in a wrong direction right now, and it needs to be corrected before somebody acts out.”

[Fumesucker]

11. I argue all kinds of positions here; I enjoy sparring with rug, a wily and treacherous opponent

Backing him into a corner makes nailing jello to the wall look like child's play.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218213469#post40

This is after all the religion forum where literally anything you can dream up whilst under the influence of the very finest of recreational substances is gospel. See the Rock Demon thread for instance.

[stone space]

12. Point is, the sign is quite consistent with their other behaviour.

The family is engaging in blatant racist, xenophobic behavior, of which the sign is only one element.

Nobody is confused about the meaning of that sign.

Sometimes what looks like a cigar really is a cigar.

[Fumesucker]

13. What was put in the OP was about a week of chanting over amplifiers

If a Baptist tent revival set up on my next door neighbor's lawn by a week later I'd be ready for them to go home too.

Say Hallelujah!

Praise Jesus!

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14. The quotes that I posted from the article talk about...

...cars, new homes and credit cards.

About how Americans are the minority, and how you can't say anything without being labeled a racist.

About making ends meet, about the handing out of bennifits, working hard. About paying taxes, about walking up and down the road all day, and about buying new cars. About digital I-phones, and about securing bank loans. About new homes, credit, jobs, and newcomers taking over existing neighborhoods.

This community means a lot to her, and that's why she is upset.

This is all classic immigrant bashing.

Pretend that it is something else all you like, but she's really pretty damn blatant about it. She doesn't go out of her way to hide her racism and xenophobia at all. She's just tired of everybody calling her a racist, that's all. I imagine that she gets called that a lot, given her laundry list of complaints.

[Fumesucker]

15. Two awful groups of people as far as I see it

One group of bigoted assholes and another group of loud and annoying assholes.

I wouldn't want to live next to either one, how about you?

Still looking for contributions in order to further my religious duty...

[stone space]

16. False equivilence. One sounds dangerous. Possibly life-threatening. The other doesn't.

A religious celebration is not going to make my wife afraid to step out of our front door.

Racist xenophobes living next door will. We'd likely have to sell our house and move.

I really can't believe that you are actually comparing ordinary folks with racist xenophobes.