Another Day In The Life of A White Civil Rights Activist in the Deep South.

(My apologies for the format of this story: I just couldn't get it to do right and have lost my patience with it) I tried to be good, I promise I did. I was in a Doctors' waiting room when the racist came in. I didn't know it until he opened his mouth. There was a television in the corner and the news was talking about Muslims who did not want to remove their turbans when boarding an airplane. Now I personally think that they should remove them, if there is a threat to national security. But that is just my opinion. Whatever the courts of national law decide, I will obey... and I hope all citizens of Muslim descent will as well. But after this guy came in he began to express his own opinion loudly, to everyone in the room. It didn't appear he knew anybody there, and didn't care. He was going to tell everyone how he felt about Muslims. First he said he thought those (racist slur) shouldn't be allowed in the country and not on planes. I let that first one pass. I told you... I tried to be good. Then he said they ought to make all those (racial slur) strip butt naked before they got on a plane. That was it. As he showed no signs of shutting up, I stood up and said, "What if they were (At this point I used the R word, which I shouldn't have done), would you let them on the plane?" He was surprised and said, "What are you, one of their friends?" I said, "I don't even know any Muslims, but I know there are many who are American Citizens and they obey the laws and they have rights." He said, "They tore down the twin towers." I said, "Not all of them did." Then he made another remark which I responded to, which might identify the doctor's office we were at, so I won't include it here. Then he said, "I think you better sit down and shut up before I make you..." or words to that effect and then he sat down. I told him to "Come on and bring it on. Now I happened be standing in front of where another man was sitting and he said, "You better get out of my face before I get up too. I told him, "Come on, too, then," and he acted like he was going to but thought better of it." Then the male office manager came and stood between me and the two seated men and asked what was going on. I told him that guy is over there making loud racial slurs against Muslims and I have had enough of it. He told me that he understood but would I like to come inside the doctor's office and out of the waiting room. I told him "I am not going to run from that man." He said, "You won't be running from him. We'd just like you to come on in." He was obviously trying to diffuse the situation. I decided to go on in. Once inside I could feel my adrenilin flowing and could not sit down. I saw the Doctor and asked him if he heard what had happened. He said he had, and that any type of discrimination is just wrong. On my way out I saw the office manager and said, "I apologize for the disturbance but someone has to stand up to those people. He told me, "You have nothing to apologize for." On my way out and in the waiting room, I looked around. The loud mouth was gone. The second man was sitting there, but he still showed no signs of wanting to get up. One more thing: the racist was wearing a certain kind of clothing so that every one in the room could easily tell what he did for a living. It was a position of authority. People are supposed to respect this kind of person... because they are supposed to deserve it. I am purposely not telling you what he was wearing, because you can not judge all of the people of his group as being bad... just because that bad apple had the same job. Just like you can't judge all of the millions of Muslims as being bad... because of what a few extremists did on 9/11. There are many Muslims who must feel that what some extremists did on that day was horribly wrong. I wish this story had a happy ending, but it doesn't really. At least two men in the waiting room were willing to judge all of a religion, of a race, on the actions of a deadly few. To me, the best of all possible endings would have been this: For the office manager to have turned to the man and said, "Sir, we will not allow racial slurs of any kind to be used in this office. You will have to leave." But instead, just like all the years leading up to the success of the Civil Right's movement, good people who should have taken a stand... chose to difuse the moment instead. I don't blame the office manager. It takes courage to make a stand... a stand that might possibly hurt business. But one thing about diffusing a time bomb... some of them have a habit of exploding later any way. White people tried to sweep all the racist injustices against blacks under the rug and keep them "hidden" year after year. But eventually it all came out and could not be put back under the rug again. All the adrenlin is gone from me from this day. But one sound is still ringing in my ears. It is the voice of Dr. King saying that when an injustice is done to one of us... it is done to all of us. I don't know the first Muslim personally. But I do know that they are people. They have human rights. And one of those rights should be - if it already isn't - That each of them be judged on their own behavior... and not lumped together as all criminals by loudmouths... just because of some of them who are in fact murderers. This guy had asked me, "What are you, their friend?" Another guy asked me years ago, when I stood up for black equality... he said, "Who are you trying to be? Another Dr. Martin Luther King?" I told him, No, that I was just trying to help the world become a better place. I am not trying to be Dr. King. I am not trying to be the "savior" of the the Blacks or the Hispanics or the Muslims in America. I am just trying to be good. I promise. Treating every body I meet fairly, one person at a time, regardless of whether they are black, or muslim, or a white with a problem. And sometimes I fail. I failed in this instance. Why? Because this is America. That guy was within his rights to express his opinion. On the other hand, I had the right to express mine as well, but I realize now I should have said it in another way. I should have calmly said simply, "Sir, I disagree with what you are saying." I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have shut him up... but at least it might have been a neater sweep under the carpet. And isn't that what everyone seems to want? To listen to people express their unjustified hatred of a whole group of people based on the actions of some? That may be true... but it isn't right. The right thing is to judge each person individually. Or better yet... don't judge them at all. That's God's job. Not ours.