It's no secret that anti-Arab hysteria was whipped up by the far right several years ago to justify the Bush administration's militaristic policies. First, it was used to gain support for the aggression against Iran. Now, it's being used to lay the ground work for some kind of military action against Iran. An pernicious side effect of this hatred is the how this poison turns Americans against other Americans. Take the recent case of a local Turkish*-American woman and the garbage she was subjected to on a recent trip
(*-Note: such bigotry is irrational and thus unconcerned with trite things like reality, such as the fact that neither Iranians nor Turks are considered Arabs. Arab has become synonymous with a generic 'Them dark-skinned folks over there.')
A local college administrator took a bus trip with her husband to SeaWorld in Florida. According to The Post-Star, the tour bus driver made slurs over the vehicle's loudspeaker about blondes and Jews, and described Muslims as "towel heads," "rag heads" and "sheet heads."
Trying to reassure people, the driver called himself an "equal opportunity offender".
Ok, so he's a hate-spewing moron against everybody. Whew!
When the woman expressed her discomfort to the driver after the trip, the driver mocked her accent.
He's been fired.
But can you imagine the national uproar had the driver spewed anti-Christian bigotry like that? The yap shows and blogs would be overflowing with outrage.
Then At SeaWorld's Shamu stadium, [the woman] Hilal Isler said, flying eagles and the American flag were shown on the jumbo screen. Audience members were shouting, "We support our troops," and, "Go America," Isler told the [Orlando] Sentinel.
The paper reported "the scene irked her."
"We are not at a military rally," she is quoted as saying. "Maybe they don't want us here. We won't be back."
I understand this sentiment. There are military and pro-war rallies all the time. No problem. I don't think anyone expects them at an amusement park's whale show.
A few years ago, I went to a charity rodeo was subjected to even worse crap. The bombastic announcer was berating liberals and Muslims and Arabs and all this crap. He went on about how great America was. I love my country, but when I go to rodeo, I don't want a chest-beating orgy of "we're the best and everyone else can rot in hell." I was about to walk out but the loudmouth finally shut up and got on the actual reason the people had shown up.
Speaking of bombastic loudmouths, the woman was attacked by Rush Limbaugh. "OK, it's one thing to be called a 'sheet head' when you're Muslim and not wearing a towel on your head when you're riding the I-Ride in Orlando, but can you imagine the humiliation of going to Shamu Stadium in Orlando at Sea World and having the American flag flashing?" he ranted.
Post-Star columnist Will Doolitle rightly condemned 'the crassness of using the sacrifice of U.S. troops to sell tickets to a dolphin show.' Ironic how burning the flag in free expression infuriates people but using it for commercial exploitation passes completely under the national radar.
It's the American way, I guess.
It's one thing to have the flag waving. It's another to have a military-style rally at a whale show. But maybe being addicted to drugs destroys common sense. At least I hope that's his excuse.
I'm not sure what excuse some of the Orlando Sentinel's readers have.
One person commented on the story with the following (quoted verbatim):
dont come back. this is america. if an american owned theme park wants to display an american flag, its there perogative. maybe the patriot act should look into these people.
Huzzah for freedom!
The anonymous post also made disparaging remarks about Turkey.
I imagine the Turkish-American Mrs. Isler has a far more coherent grasp of the English language than the American reader of The Sentinel.
Morons like the bus driver and Limbaugh are bad enough. But it's chilling to thing that fanatics like The Sentinel boob really exist in this country. Then again, maybe I shouldn't separate the three. Their all different shades of the same color.
The worst part of the story: sick of being attacked by the yap shows, she quit her job as a college administration because of all the national press attention (originally, she'd only complained to the Orlando paper just because it was so outrageous). The university called her a 'valued member of our community' and asked her to reconsider.
No comments:
Post a Comment