So tonight I went to my garden

[davidthegnome]

22. As long as there are Americans like you...

Then Americans like those idiots driving by in their car will be outnumbered and outwitted (one of you is worth any number of them). I can't cry much myself, it takes some kind of severe emotional situation for me to reach that point, perhaps because I've become so numb to all of the terrible things reported by our media.

I lost a good friend a couple years ago, a childhood friend I had grown up with. I had flown from Maine to Kansas City for his wedding, where I was a groomsman. He and the other groomsmen were all military, hardcore right wing, politically backward... but this gentleman and I had grown up together, he was like a Brother to me.

As they were driving me to the Airport one afternoon, there was an older, Hispanic looking gentleman with long hair, stubble, clothes that indicated that he hadn't been able to wash them in a while. He was obviously homeless, as also indicated by the sign he was holding. We had beer in the back of the SUV we were riding in, left over from the wedding. The driver (one of the groomsmen) pulled to a stop and held one out for the man, who eagerly ran over and grabbed it. With a "God bless you boys! and happy fourth!" (it was the fourth of July) he walked off, smiling.

The men in the SUV (including my friend) started joking about it. "We should call the cops, tell them "Hey, there's this scary homeless guy running around with a beer here" haha". They had random jokes, lines about homeless people, the uselessness of "bums". It made me sick. I regret to this day that I never said anything to them, just sat and listened with widening eyes and the sudden notion that these guys were assholes.

The jokes they started making about Hispanics as we reached the Airport made me want to throw up. I made a quick escape, congratulated my friend on his wedding - and got on the plane back home. I don't talk to them anymore, not even a childhood friend who had meant so much to me. I'm not sure he ever really understood why.

There is a way of treating people, a decency, a compassion, humility... basic kindness and empathy that is so sadly lacking from many young Americans (particularly American males) these days. A man who is so inhumane as to mock the homeless and tell racist jokes is no friend of mine, no matter who he may once have been.

America? America the Beautiful? "All men are created equal", "We hold these truths to be self evident", you know... I think we need to alter some things, some lines. One being that all PEOPLE are created equal - and that we should hold THAT truth to be self evident. I think that we need to explain to our people (patiently and slowly and with very small words) that there is nothing inherently superior or grand about simply being American. There is nothing superior in being a white American, or in being a white male American, or in being a wealthy white male American. One human being is worth as much as any other.

How dare anyone think their race or Nationality makes them superior, how dare they even suggest that others are not welcome here. We are Irish, Indian, Pakistani, British, Native American, African American - we come from every race and Nationality of the past and present. We are human beings. And this America that uneducated, ignorant little bigots think they know so much about was built as much by Native Americans, Chinese Laborers, African American slaves, indentured servants, and the poor of various Countries... as it was by anyone else. The blood on the hands of our forefathers should leave our own stained until we have shown enough compassion to wash away the horrors of the past.

Why do people have to be so cruel, so stupid? Why do they have to treat others this way? I don't know. I can only say that they must be very small and insecure. I can only say that, in the grand scheme of things, they are far less significant and far less worthy than the Soccer boy who is a legend.