Down the road a ways from my home, there is a "Frosty King". It's a Dairy Queen knock off. Thing is, in my town there is only one Dairy Queen and it's a LONG ways away from me, there are however several of these Frosty kings. The one near my home I noticed some time ago had a broken window. The kind of break that would indicate some one threw something through it. This struck me as a bit odd, as its not located in a "bad" area of town. Still there are homeless about and perhaps a ticked off customer. What really struck me as odd was when the window was fixed only to be broken again in a matter of days. For a long time the owner simply put up some plywood. Can't say I blamed him either. I never went there. No reason why I didn't...just didn't. Well last night after attending my wife's bosses 40th anniversary dinner, I decided to go through the drive through of the Frosty king. Might as well give it a try. When we got to the service window I was pleasantly surprised to find a young woman, probably 14 or 15, wearing a attractive shawl over her head. That's right, she was Muslim. What I am assuming was her younger brother also showed up in the "picture" and he too was obviously of middle eastern heritage. Then in a flash the broken windows suddenly, and very sadly, made sense. This restaurant was owned and operated by a Muslim family. Though it's not located in the "bad" part of town, it is located near the "white" part of town. The window was the repeated victim of hate.
Suddenly, I was grateful that I can choose to be like the fox, and blend in and hide my pagan beliefs if need be. These fine folk didn't get that option.
I live in a very liberal university town bordered on all sides by the some of the most violent, err... congregations I've had the displeasure of coming across. Living on "the border", I see this type of thing far, far more often than I ever thought I'd have to.
ReplyDeleteAwesome title, awesome post.
ReplyDeleteI was told at a very young age that I had the greatest advantage anyone could ever have, the perfect disguise.
Unfortunately, so do those who break windows.
Do you know how much shit I have to put up with because some more vocal members of my religion happen to be fuckwads? Lon Milo DuQuette wrote a fucking song about how stupid it is to be a Christian, and my pagan friends inevitably trot it out without regard to the fundamentally insulting nature of the thing every Christmas. They basically say, RO, here's some shit on everything that you've found to be beautiful and pure.
ReplyDeleteSo don't just go thinking it's a whites against Muslim problem. The same disease exists not that far away in your own social group you hang out with all the time. It's just fucked.