Ignorance is Frightening

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was running errands today, things were going great, took the car in for a recall repair and it took 2 hours instead of the 4 - 6 I was expecting, a good-looking sicilian guy was flirting with me for a bit before I made my exit. Did a little shopping, found a trashcan for my car, found San Pelligrino San Bitters after a two year search, the red pillows I wanted for the couch were finally on sale so I bought four. Picked up dinner for tonight and a starfruit to try.
Then I headed for the postoffice near Crystal City in Arlington. As I came up 15th street I saw the usual and expected line into the small parking lot and then noticed the two metered spots in front on the street. I’m getting out of the car and putting a dime in the meter when from (to me) out of no-where, an angry, ignorant man walks up to the cab parked in one of the spots.
This angry, ignorant man proceeds to loudly berate the cab driver for taking too long to back out of the space when so many people are waiting on one. He called the poor driver every racial, racist slur ever hurled at someone of middle-eastern or seemingly middle-eastern descent.

I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. Sadly, I am so non-confrontational that I could not even come to the driver’s defense and I wish I could apologize to him for that.

Selfishly, I’m angry at the ignorant man also for the dose of reality he forced me to acknowledge. I like to think that people are tolerant of other peoples and religions, and that everyone has a modicum of manners. This is a country that was built by diverse peoples of diverse religions. The religous freedom guaranteed in the Bill of Rights is one of the reasons so many people have come to this country. Sadly some folks have interpeted the right to free speech in that same Bill of Rights as the right to denigate and abuse people they dislike or who are not the same skin color, religion, or whose first language is not english.

Sorry if this sounds incomplete, it kind of is, I still have not got my mind around what happened. Maybe after I’ve manage to process the whole thing I’ll add something later.

I don’t know if the rose colored glasses will work anymore.

2

I must say, catnoe… that’s really sad.
It’s always nice to think that this sort of thing doesn’t happen… or only happens in the movies… or only in the Big City… or only in that other country. But then it strikes close to home.

Don’t let it get to you. Yes, there are jerks in the world. Yes, some people do dumb things. Yes, some people even do malicious things. But you don’t have to. Be nice to people. Be nice enough to make up for the nastiness of the few jerks in the world. Care for people, especially the people close to you - but don’t forget the others.

And don’t let your view of the world fall apart. People DO do nice things. They help each other; they build relationships, gardens, and governments. And the world, without the people, is still a beautiful place. Don’t give up hope. Think of children and stars and Vienna and whales and calculus and the United Nations. That’s what I do.

Go outside. Look at the sky.

If the stars are out, look at them, and think of the vast reaches of order and chaos and wonderful secrets that lie there. Think of the billions of other people who look at them, and the things that are important to them- their children, their homes, love and the simple joy of life.

If the sun is out, think of the marvel that is life on earth, and how its sustained in eternity by only one thing… a seemingly fragile arrangement, but one which, like a parent’s love fopr a child, is unbreakable. Life goes on, all things possible go on, because of the endurance of the world, and the sun. You’re a little part of a very resilient system.

If it’s cloudy, or windy, or rainy, or such, consider the marvelous ordered complexity that is the earth’s weather, and the fascinating, essential function it serves in maintaining the surface of the earth as it is, and allowing the life that lives on it. And be thankful for your warm coat, your muscles that let you shovel the snow, and your mind and senses that allow you to react to the weather.

Life is grand, even if we make it seem otherwise sometimes.

Once you’re though with the sky, take a look at the houses, the streets, the world around you. In those houses are people, who for the most part are reasonable, and want the same basic things as you, and yet are sufficently varied to be each unique. The vast majority of these people are full of value you will never know, indeed, perhaps neither will they. Like diamonds in the sand or springs in the desert, they are the value of the world. Even when everything else seems empty, remeber that undoubtedly the world is full of such wonderful people, who every day do great deeds that will be forever forgotten. Perhaps, for example, they will love someone, or feed their spouse, or repair a tool.

The streets are full, too, of these people. They were built by these people, and are a symbol of the great, if mundane, exercises that humanity, even in its disunity, constantly undertakes to serve itself. They represent all of the important things we do for each other. Under them may lie water lines for every house. Beside them are telephone lines that connect us together. Along them are posted firefighters, police, medical workers, and legislatures that exist only to assist those in need. And in between those are more, wonderful things. The mission for men, the food bank, the library, the market.

There are things which are not ideal in the world. The best way to react to them: recognise that the good in the world far outweighs them. Do not partake in them. Do not support them. Tell your children why you do not do these things. And, Fight Ignorance. In all things be honest, and never let bigotry win. Truthfully debunk misconceptions, and don’t stoop to any level below honesty, kindness, and fairness.

Have a good day, today, catnoe, and don’t let a few toast crumbs in the world’s butter get you down.

3

I’m so sorry that happened, I’m just praying its on the decline as a popular opinion in our nation.

4

You know how you think of the brilliant comebacks when it’s too late to use them? I don’t know that it’s brilliant but several hours later…I thought I should have asked him his last name and made a fair guess at the origin of his family, then asked how long the family had been in the country. Most of my family came to America 300 + years ago and a branch I’ve yet to substantiate was allready here. I figured I could tell him to go back to where he came from.

I knew people behave badly towards people not like themselves, I am from the south, and after 9/11 all those people being attacked and such. But I never saw it myself. And some of the names the angry man used I’d only ever seen in print, I’d never heard them spoken aloud.

I am dealing with it. I’m starting to understand why my family always told me I lived in a fantasy world. I’ll be back to my normal cheerful happy self shortly but those rose colored glasses will be a few shades less rosey.

I should have made my sig. line - Reality sucks.

5

Well, at least you did acknowledge it. I am annoyed almost daily by the rants on this Board against racism, prejudice, ethnocentrism, provincialism, etc., as if all these things were not an eternal part of the human condition, everywhere. For all our flaws, and there are many, we are still one of the most open and tolerant societies the world has seen. People who doubt it haven’t been around enough.
The prejudiced, like the poor, will always be with us. We certainly don’t have to like it, but acting like prejudice is unusual, or that we are somehow “above” it, is being blind to reality.