Stop Ignorance

Last night was the first time I was actually harassed for being American. There have been a few small awkward incidences, none of them really worth mentioning, but last night stirred me up. I met up with my friends at a bar and there were two guys sitting with them. One of them I knew, very nice guy, very funny, and not as shady as most. His friend however I had never seen before and sat at the table not saying a word. Within two minutes of me getting there, the bar closed so we decided that we'd head to another one down the block, and the quiet guy offered to give us a lift. While we were walking to the car he starts preaching about how terrible America is. I tell him that there is a huge difference between the people and the government of our country, and that I disagree with the actions of our government just as much as he does. Then he launches into this huge tangent, "Your people chose Bush for eight years! Don't try to tell me there is a difference! Your people chose that government!"

Let's take a moment to look at these sentences. First of all if you ever use the phrase "your people" you are an ignorant fuck. It means that you are lumping many many people into one category and judging the individual based on the actions of a few members of the group. Don't talk to me about "my people." Those are not my people. For christ sake I wasn't even old enough to vote in the last presidential election.

Now lets look at, "Your people chose that government!" Argentina is also a democracy, and is well known for having one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Argentines will go on and on and on about how their government doesn't represent their people. I could have very easily said to this Argentine, "You live in a democracy as well. How come you elect the most corrupt leaders in the world?" But I didn't because, unlike him, I'm aware that there is more to the story. Elections are won through bribery and fraud. Not everything is black and white.

Anyways, I really didn't feel like explaining, in Spanish, the electoral system and how technically we didn't actually choose Bush for eight years, so I opted to tell him how low Bush's approval ratings are and how many many people in America don't agree with his ideas. So we get in the car and this guy just kept flipping out, I mean he was absolutely livid. And the whole time he was talking he kept pointing to his "Stop War" t-shirt. He was actually yelling at me as if I were Bush himself. It was like he had all this hate for Americans that had been building up for years and now that he was actually face to face with one he decided to take it out on her.

We drive for about five minutes before the guy swerves over the side of the road, nearly hits two pedestrians, stops the car and tells us to get out. Both of my friends didn't really understand what was going on. The nice guy unsuccessfully tries to convince him to chill. I pull both my friends out of the car and he speeds off leaving us on the side of the road. The night didn't turn out all that bad, as he happened to drop us right in front of the only bar that was open at that hour, but still it's the principle of the thing.

There are people in this world that hate you simply because you're American. Wanna change that? Start here.

http://www.elections.il.gov/Downloads/VotingInformation/PDF/R-19.pdf

Get educated.