I don't think the GP is suggesting we simply co-opt other customs. But that we can either develop our own or adapt others'.

The lack of any tradition has been a deafening issue for child deaths.

There are small efforts, such as rainbow babies or purple butterflies (Google them) that are helping bring awareness and systems to grieve. But most are to bring awareness or as a marker to indicate non-verbally to others to tread lightly. But nothing has taken root in the same mourning traditions we see in other cultures.

I agree that the knee-jerk reflex to presume superiority of international (and especially European) cultural aspects is tiresome. And very rarely do people actually manage a dispassionate comparison of two cultures, with a preference that could not be deduced from their prior political leanings.

But in this case, jf isn't just emoting about his opinion, he's at least suggesting some place for further reading. His comment is useful for someone who might want to know more about how other cultures mourn.

> Why do people reject the idea that Americans are allowed to have their own culture? reply

No one said that they are not allowed to have their own culture. Read the post you are replying to again. It is implying that American are lacking in mourning traditions and that some should be adopted. Looking at what other cultures do is a start, but there's nothing to say that these new mourning traditions couldn't be entirely new, and specific to Americans.

You're tilting at windmills here. The original post did not say this, yet this is what you are continuing to rant about.

I suspect GP meant "mourning" but misspelled

I often run into people simultaneously rejecting that we have our own culture and forbidding that we dare adopt any other culture. It's all been appropriated, and of course one can't be doing that. I'm glad I have no need to please these people, as I'm not sure how to do so.