#398 Comeback

I might make a few enemies with this entry, but here goes anyway.

I received the following email from an old friend, a Methodist minister, who asked me what I thought of the comeback.  He wanted "a different perspective".

Subject: Love this comeback...

One lady tells this story...

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 U.S. 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 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!

IF YOU AGREE ...
Pass this on to all your proud American friends.
I just did

He should have known better than to ask me.  This was my response to him:

Oooo.  You just hit a hornet's nest.  I have mixed feelings about this (especially after having read Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi ).
 
Let me put it this way:  I own a house and land, much of which is woods.  There are several large old locust and wild cherry trees at the edge of the surrounding woods that lean out toward and over my house.  Occasionally a tree falls.  So far none have hit my house, but I worry that someday one might.  But in general, my yard looks nice and works for me.  I just need to be careful.  I'm willing to take my chances.
 
One morning I wake to find a horde of strangers in my yard, cutting down the trees surrounding the house.  They tell me they are here to help me.  They stomp all over my flower beds.  They cut down even the small decorative apple trees.  They chopped up my beloved mulberry and pear trees.  They leave most branches and trunks where they fall.  At first I think, ok, they are helping to save my house, thank you, go away now. 
 
But, all those trees they had cut down were acting as windbreaks for the trees behind them.  The decaying roots of the dead stumps are loosening the soil as they decompose.  Termites have moved in and are beginning to eye my house.  The next rank of trees begin to lean and fall.  My house gets hit by trees that had not been a threat before.  They have taken out my telephone line and blocked my driveway.   
 
The horde of lumberjacks descends again.  They cut more trees.  I am losing my woods.  They are proud of the way they are helping me.  They tell me I should be grateful for the sacrifice of those lumberjacks on whom trees have fallen.
 
You want me to be grateful to them? 
 
Hey, they were my trees!  It was my danger, to accept or reject as I saw fit.  I never asked for their "help".  I never asked any of them to "sacrifice" for my house.  It might have been different if I had tried to get rid of the leaning trees myself, and they arrived to help me in my struggle, but that's not how it went!  I had no say.  The leaning trees troubled me, but they were my leaning trees!  It was my decision whether to live with the situation or not.
 
I have every right to blame them for the mess in my yard!
 
I have every right to ask them when they are going to stop cutting down my trees and let me decide what to do next with my own yard. 
 
And don't you dare use those lumberjacks who died under falling trees to try to make me feel guilty!  How arrogant is that!?  How condescending?

So go back now and reread the original note.  The woman in the burka (and I suspect it was a hijab and jilbab, without an actual burqa) perhaps did not express her sentiments well (and I also suspect this story is apocryphal anyway), but I find the lack of sensitivity on the part of the Americans just plain embarrassing.

Blame it on the rain.

~~Silk

Update 5:57 pm, return email from my friend:

VERY GOOD analogy!  

I find BOTH perspectives have their value ... and laid side by side, they provide the real challenge of this Current Ignorance (stolen from W.Churchill).  

Why can't brothers and sisters live peacably together? This issue goes clear back to Cain & Able.  

THANKS for your profound response.  

I got me some neat friends, eh?  I had been a little afraid he might be offended. 

~~Silk