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.