SamSaid!

TOLERANCE

     It was a bit unnerving to hear our Veep and FBI chief say that it is only a matter of time until a terrorist suicide bomber strikes in the US. With that prospect in mind, it is understandable that we all pay closer attention to others, i.e., strangers, while going about our daily lives  –  particularly if they wear different apparel, speak a different language, hold to different beliefs, eat different foods, etc., etc.

     Even after 9/11 there have been very few incidents of attacks on middle-easterners. Under the circumstances, Americans have shown remarkable restraint and tolerance. And of course, we are regularly bombarded from the usual sources about judging ethnic or religious groups on the basis of the actions of a few who are conveniently called “extremists”. That's a no-no.

     But something tells me that if a middle eastern terrorist detonates a suicide bomb among Americans somehwhere on US soil, that tolerance will wear thin or disappear very quickly. It is at this point when the argument shifts from intellectual reasoning to gut feeling. The academicians may continue to live in their dream worlds of ideas, since most of them wouldn't fight for anything. A few dead Americans certainly wouldn't dissuade them from bashing America. But the man in the street is something else. I think Joe Citizen is far more concerned over life and survival than ACLU preoccupation of “rights”. Most people are not concerned about expanded investigatory rights of the FBI and CIA; they are more concerned about the threat posed by hostile aliens running loose around the country.

     Conceding their legal “blinders”, the ACLU and others may be “right”; but if they guess wrong a whole lot of us may be “dead right”. That is scant consolation

     Thus far, the middle eastern ethnics in the US have been relatively quiet in supporting the war on terrorism which, after all, is being waged against some of their countrymen. After the first suicide bomber, I think that the tolerance level toward middle easterners will drop from 8 down to about 2 on the scale of ten. It doesn't matter whether the attitude change is right or wrong; that's just the way it will be.

ANGER

     Late afternoon is a nice time of day at our house. Sitting in my favorite chair, I scan the newspapers, idly watch the news on TV and enjoy a cocktail while anticpating still another super meal being prepared by my wife who is an excellent cook. It can't get much better than that.

     Then my tranquillity was broken by three telephone calls from tele-marketers. One was to re-finance my home, the second was to give me a special vacation deal in the Caribbean and the third was to manage my IRAs. I know I can stop these calls by Caller ID, but I really hate to isolate myself from the rest of the world. What really irritated me about these three unwelcome calls was that the callers had heavy accents and I had a hard time  understanding what they were pitching. It's a helluva note to sit in your own home and be hustled for something you don't want by someone whom you can't understand. I don't know whether the accents were Swahili, Urdu, Cambodian, Guatamalan, or Farsi  –  and it doesn't matter. For the life of me, I can't understand why someone desiring to sell something would hire sales people who can even speak english clearly. The chances of me showing any interest in that type of sales approach are about the same as Castro embracing capitalism and apologizing to George Bush. As a kid, I remember the words of our neighborhood baker, Andy Pasquini, who said, “I didn't come to this country to be an Italian; I came to be an American”. If people come to this country, the least they can do is learn the language.

     The calls didn't ruin my evening, and the salmon dinner quickly changed my perspective. I know these callers can barely speak english  –  but I wonder if they understand four letter words.