A Blogger's Rant

On Today's Menu: Seeing beyond your front yard.

WARNING! This blog contains monumental amounts of sarcasm. Some of its contents may be considered unsuitable to the parochial reader.

I overheard a most provocative conversation this week. I wish I could say "participated in" but the reality was that I simply sat listening to this dialogue with a mouth struggling to open and a conscience cloaked in a painful, staggered silence. The discussion referred to the influx of legal and/or illegal immigrants into our glorious nation and how the Obama administration is or isn't handling the situation, how our local government is or isn't handling the situation, etc, etc. Now, I hate politics. I seriously hate politics. For that reason, at first recognition of what appears to be political dialogue, my first response is to flip the auditory switch in an effort to block the tedium coming my way. However, at that particular moment I was late in reaching said switch and listened to a conversation that I quickly and rather astoundingly realized was not a political discussion. Instead, political deliberation was merely the mask of a much deeper issue. 

Of the people involved in this discussion, every last one of them agreed that it should be required of all immigrants to use English only in everyday life, to adopt American traditions (such as our ways of celebrating Christmas or Thanksgiving), and to never allow the integration of non-native children into our well established school systems as it could minimize the progress made by our own English speaking American children. One member of the company even went so far as to suggest that: should "these people" not comply to this list of demands, then they "should be kicked out of the USA and sent back to their own land." Subsequently, the group reflected on personal encounters with the immigrants living in our own community and commented on the inappropriateness of their displaying the flags of their native countries on their vehicles and wearing t-shirts with non-English writing. "If they are going to be in America, then they need to behave as Americans," they said. Sensational attitude. I think that should be the tag line underneath that banner we so proudly wave professing this the "Land Of The Free."

Inevitably the conversation ended and I was left alone with its remnants...I felt dumbfounded and naive. I wanted to scream. 

If this is how the whole world thinks, tell me then, how I am to behave while in Spain this summer?  Should I dye my hair dark brown, apply massive amounts of spray tan to my skin and start proclaiming soccer...I'm sorry, football...as my favorite pastime? I should definitely forget about bringing any t-shirts screen printed in English and I certainly don't want to disrupt the social norm by speaking my native language. So tell American Eagle Outfitters sorry! They're out of luck when it comes to my buck! To be accepted I must leave at home my American flag along with my American pride! If I am to be in Spain, I must become a Spaniard or else I will be drop kicked back across the pond and into a life I know I do not want. 

I spent the rest of the day reflecting. Fighting intense feelings of anger, annoyance, offense, and sadness. Angry with them for saying and believing such things. Annoyed with myself for not speaking up. Offended by such debasing comments. Extremely saddened that this is the reality I live in. I felt alone in my thoughts. I wondered if anyone else could see what I was seeing and if they could, would they care? Why was I reacting so strongly? Why did I feel such passion? What am I supposed to do about it? Can one person make any kind of difference in this great big world that's so set in its ways?