Sunday, December 24, 2006

Sad to Say, Bigotry is Still Alive and Well

Late last night, we had a group of customers in the bar that are regulars and as it happens are all from Mexico. As they were visiting with each other, they meandered from speaking in English and switched to Spanish. There also happened to be an old bigot sitting at the other end of the bar nursing his glass of wine and half dozing in his solitude. When he heard the group speaking at the other end of the bar, he became enraged calling the bartender and ordered her to "go tell those people to stop speaking Mexican". The bartender informed him that they were speaking amongst themselves and could speak in any language they cared to. He continued to complain that they were in the United States and were not allowed to speak Mexican. At this point she pointed out to them that they were speaking fluent Spanish, not Mexican, they were all highly educated and he was free to leave if he didn't like it. She walked away and he sat there boiling in his own bigotry. I thought we had left the days of intolerance years ago, but I can see, my beliefs were premature. There are still plenty of jerks in our world. How can we as a country, hope to bring peace to this world when we have people in this country who object even the the language other people use to communicate to each other.