I"m both enjoying and despairing at watching so many people around me in my real life, have a gold-fish-like collective memory that only goes back as far as the last frequently-shown news image.
Today everyone remembers this graphic footage, complete with disturbing audio, of an American get decapitated by an Iraqi.
Days before that, the could only remember the pile of naked Iraqi civilian prisoners withe female guard giving the thumbs-up sign
Before that they could only remember the American building contractors being hung from a bridge ,
Ect.
Today I had a person who sits ONE DESK away from me use company email to forward one of those multi-forwarded emails with all the >>> 'greater than' signs at the beginning of each line.
She sent it to me and about 10 other people in our office. It was about people in line at an American grocery store proudly harassing a Burqua-wearing Iraqi woman about how she wouldn't have the privilege of being there among them if our soldiers hadn't liberated her. In spite of the fact she knows I teach English to refugees and am active in immigrant rights, and in spite of the fact that one of the other people on the list is from Nigeria. Oh well here it is...
Subject: FW: (no subject)
> As some of you may know, one of my sons serves in the military. He is still stateside, here in California. He called me yesterday to let me know how warm and welcoming people were to him, and his troops, everywhere he goes, telling me how people shake their hands, and thank them for being willing to serve, and fight, for not only our own freedoms but so that others may have them also. But he also told me about an incident in the grocery store he stopped at yesterday, on his way home from the base.
>
>He said that ahead of several people in front of him stood a woman dressed in a burkha. He said when she got to the cashier she loudly remarked about the US flag lapel pin the cashier wore on her smock.
>The cashier reached up and touched the pin, and said proudly, "yes, I always wear it and I probably always will."
>
>The woman in the burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.
>
>A gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward, putting his arm around my son's shoulders, and nodding towards my son, said in a calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: "Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and women like this young man have fought and died so that YOU could stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is
>my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR own country, we wouldn't need to be there today. But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly, I'll gladly buy you a ticket and pay your way back to Iraq so you can straighten out the mess in YOUR country that you are obviously here in MY country to avoid." Everyone within hearing distance cheered.
>
>Pass it on....
I FUCKING NEED A NEW JOB!
Today everyone remembers this graphic footage, complete with disturbing audio, of an American get decapitated by an Iraqi.
Days before that, the could only remember the pile of naked Iraqi civilian prisoners withe female guard giving the thumbs-up sign
Before that they could only remember the American building contractors being hung from a bridge ,
Ect.
Today I had a person who sits ONE DESK away from me use company email to forward one of those multi-forwarded emails with all the >>> 'greater than' signs at the beginning of each line.
She sent it to me and about 10 other people in our office. It was about people in line at an American grocery store proudly harassing a Burqua-wearing Iraqi woman about how she wouldn't have the privilege of being there among them if our soldiers hadn't liberated her. In spite of the fact she knows I teach English to refugees and am active in immigrant rights, and in spite of the fact that one of the other people on the list is from Nigeria. Oh well here it is...
Subject: FW: (no subject)
> As some of you may know, one of my sons serves in the military. He is still stateside, here in California. He called me yesterday to let me know how warm and welcoming people were to him, and his troops, everywhere he goes, telling me how people shake their hands, and thank them for being willing to serve, and fight, for not only our own freedoms but so that others may have them also. But he also told me about an incident in the grocery store he stopped at yesterday, on his way home from the base.
>
>He said that ahead of several people in front of him stood a woman dressed in a burkha. He said when she got to the cashier she loudly remarked about the US flag lapel pin the cashier wore on her smock.
>The cashier reached up and touched the pin, and said proudly, "yes, I always wear it and I probably always will."
>
>The woman in the burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.
>
>A gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward, putting his arm around my son's shoulders, and nodding towards my son, said in a calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: "Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and women like this young man have fought and died so that YOU could stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is
>my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR own country, we wouldn't need to be there today. But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly, I'll gladly buy you a ticket and pay your way back to Iraq so you can straighten out the mess in YOUR country that you are obviously here in MY country to avoid." Everyone within hearing distance cheered.
>
>Pass it on....
I FUCKING NEED A NEW JOB!
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