Regarding my cardiologist, my Arab American neighbors, and the bigot at the end of the road.
I have had it with bigots, right wing Tea Party type bigots. There is an older man, in his 70's, who lives at the end of my street, the kind we all know, with an NRA bumper sticker and a yard full of R signs every election cycle. Well, I try to be cordial, when he walks his little dog, some times he will stop and want to chat about plants, he has a little garden so asks me questions. Fine, that transcends politics.
Yesterday evening, he walked by when I was in the front yard, and stopped to talk. He noticed that I have one leg in a compression sock, I had vascular surgery on it last week. So, got to discussing that, and I mentioned the name of my cardiologist, who is Arab American. Well, in about a minute, I had to hear a diatribe about how he wouldn't go see an "Ay-rab" doctor and about how nice the neighborhood was 40 years ago before all of the "Ay-rabs" moved in.
I'm sick of bigots. I'm also not someone to lose my temper, so I merely said, "well, I don't really care where my doctor comes from as long as he's good, and as far as the neighborhood goes, diversity only makes it richer" and I walked away.
Which is true -- my neighborhood is great, a big mix of people from all over -- on my street, I have Muslims, Jews, Christians, in my sub we also have Buddhists and Hindus. And, it does make for a richer life, the food and culture becomes shared, I can pick up Sushi, Indian, Thai, and Middle Eastern carry out in one strip mall a mile down the road if I wanted to. EVERYONE gets along, I have never heard of any racial or religiously based incidents here.
This area has the largest Middle Eastern population in the US. After 9/11, there was so much national paranoia about anyone with a Middle Eastern background. Exactly how many terrorist incidents have we had in Michigan since 9/11 involving Arab-Americans. Nada, None, Zip, Zilch. Well, the biggest threat I can perceive from the Arab-American population in this region is that the food at our numerous Middle Eastern restaurants is excellent -perhaps it's stealth terrorism of the expanding waistline?
I doubt I'll bother to speak with him again, I'll just ignore. Tea baggers are beyond belief in their ignorance.
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I don't know what I would have said, but I am often not very cool under fire.
When people stay calm, as you did, then their words are often much more effective than if they had been spoken harshly or sharply. Who knows, maybe you penetrated his solidly right-wing skull?
Well done!
