Interesting Thoughts on Travel

Travel will broaden most minds, but I'm not sure at all about preventing racism.... Some of the most racist people I have met were foreigners living here in Switzerland. And if you look some of the conservative politicians in the US and the UK, they are not exactly white nationals....

Not so sure about the cause-and-effect. People tend to travel because they have a broader perspective, though it can be enhanced by travel.

Maybe some people don’t travel because they do NOT want anything listed in that refrain. None of those things listed are guaranteed by travel. The whole thing sounds like one of those mantras embroidered on a wall hanging from the 60s.
OP you should probably credit that which you cited.

That's a very hopeful perspective. I just think that it assumes that people are open-minded enough to seek and gain that wisdom when they travel. Unfortunately, I see the opposite occurring in many fellow-travelers, where it just reinforces existing stereotypes and prejudices. Where everything that is not like America is just wrong and somewhat comical. But I also think racism, suspicion and hatred has always been there, in every culture, and something to be willfully overcome.

A Poem about Traveling, by Gio Evan

OP you should probably credit that which you cited.

Simply saw it, without attribution, in a neighborhood newsletter and thought it was an interesting point of view. Other's opinions may vary.

Just saw post above. Thank you brushtim for the clarification.

“Travel is fatal to prejuidce, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain

My wife and I have traveled to Europe, Central America and she's gone to Africa. We've done more than tourism, we've done both medical and humanitarian mission work.

We have made many friends from Paris to the wilds of Scotland to small villages in Nicaraugua and Honduras and Tanzania. We have learned there's other lifestyles just as rewarding and interesting as our own. We relish and embrace cultural differences. We respect other ethnicities. We travel in ways that instead of shielding from the culture of our hosts we embrace is as much as possible.

Deb has helped deliver babies in Tanzania and I have built pig pens in Nicaraugua. We've stayed on dairy farms in Scotland and sat at the breakfast table eating fresh croissants with the resident cat in our lap at our host's house in Paris. We've stayed in a bohemian hostel in Ljubljana that used to be a prison. Travel is much more broadening when you choose to get as close as possible to the places you visit.

OP. I did not mean for you to cite the author for credit to him, but merely to know from what era it may have come or what mindset. Maybe an author I knew, like Paul Theroux or Mark Twain. Thus I could get a feeling for the context.

treemoss2,

It had to have been written in the past few years as the author is only in his mid to late 30s.

I like travel. I like travelers. I am not such a big fan of writing that tries to make travelers superior to others.

Travel is great, but it is also a luxury even if done on a budget. The time and financial commitment required leaves many behind, and some types of travel tend to be very narrow. I would argue that reading and volunteering may be a more feasible way for folks “to be beyond.” I also tend to agree with Dave’s sentiment above.