It’s been an interesting week around Austin and it’s only Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 27, 1999

It’s been an interesting week around Austin and it’s only Wednesday. New council members, shocking stories of people living like cattle, a remarkable turn out for a town meeting on diversity and at least half of the 17 Board of Education candidates coming out in favor of random drug testing at Tuesday’s AAUW forum.

Most surprising to me, was the turnout for the League of Women Voter’s town meeting on diversity. It drew well over 100 people. As LWVA president Greta Krauschaar said, the turnout was marvelous and a pleasant surprise. As she also said, the only negative was the lack of diversity.

Sure, we had Hugo Luna who gave a courageous speech about her arrival to Austin and sharing a farmhouse and the surrounding outbuildings with 26 other people – this was the "free accommodation" Luna was promised by the employment agency that brought her here. However, Luna was the only person of any color who spoke. As far as I know, she was also the only person from QPP who attended the meeting – a surprise, as QPP has probably the most culturally diverse employment population in Austin.

I pondered the lack of Hispanic or Asian faces at the meeting – I know the ESL students at Riverland knew about the meeting and I know Luna had told several people.

Many were working second shift at QPP – the same shift Luna works.

Others, well, I reckon they’re probably too busy satisfying their more immediate needs to come to a town meeting, however well intentioned.

I somehow doubt my Bohemian ancestors – who either couldn’t speak English well or grew up speaking both English and Czech – would have gotten dressed in their Sunday finest if the Norwegians and the Danish were meeting to talk about how to get along with the Bohunks.

It’s like Abraham Maslow said. There’s a hierarchy at work here, and most of the people at the meeting have already attended to their basic needs. The audience was mostly middle-aged and beyond, and have probably owned their own homes for a long time. Their kids are mostly grown, and they came because they are deeply concerned about the future of their community and want to help. They may even have time to help.

However, the bulk of the immigrants to Austin – bar possibly those who work at the Hormel Institute – probably work for less than $10 an hour, pay too much for rental accommodation and struggle to find time to learn English. They don’t have a lot of leisure time and the time they have is most likely spent with people of their own culture, talking in their own language in a relaxing comfortable atmosphere where they don’t have to worry about offending anyone.

The good Rev. Mike Juntenen was on the right track.

Individually, the answer is personal attention, even if it is just a cup of coffee or taking a plate of homemade cookies by and introducing yourself when someone new moves in.

Actions – like the older gentleman who told the crowd at the Senior Center about helping out the Hispanic family who just moved in behind him – speak a thousand words to anyone, but especially to someone new to Austin who may be more than a bit bewildered. When people talk and get to know each other, even in broken English, then things get a lot less threatening.

As for the lady who couldn’t understand why not everyone who moves here doesn’t immediately learn English, I can see her point. I also know that I can’t find enough time to go to night classes, and I only work 40 to 50 hours a week and I don’t have any kids yet.

I also know my Grampa Peterson didn’t speak any English until he started school, and he was born in the USA. Grampa Vilt would have gone to Bohemian School in Myrtle if that little girl hadn’t beaned him with an apple on the first day. Lucky for him, he got kicked out for throwing the apple back and ended up a fluent speaker of English rather than Bohemian.

Jana Peterson’s column appears Wednesdays