Can’t We All Just Get Along
I can’t say that I am a fan of anything Rodney King ever did, but I love this quote. I want to have three tee-shirts made for the remainder of my trip when I get back in September. Rodney’s “Can’t We All Just Get Along” will be perfect. I saw a bumper sticker before I left California that said “I’m Already Against the Next War”… perfect, too. I’ve been telling people here about the “There’s a Village in Texas Missing Their Idiot” bumperstickers and people roar. Believe me, George Bush is the most hated person on the planet. He would lose a personality contest against bin Laden. If that offends you, WAKE UP, PLEASE! So I am thinking about a variation such as “January 20, 2008 – A Village in Texas Gets Their Idiot Back” or maybe “Let’s Make Sure a Village in Florida Keeps Their Idiot in 2012”. I work hard out here on the road to diffuse the issues that our president has exasperated. I’m quite proud to be American and Americans are really liked in the parts of Africa I have visited, but this guy certainly has pushed folks’ buttons. We all get a good laugh about it in the end though. Once I tell them the idiot in Texas stuff, they don’t have much gumption to attack me about him. We do better and laugh at him. No W, we’re only laughing with you 🙂
Actually, I am very serious about this Getting Along business. I get to Tanzania and I am told that Americans are great because they treated their slaves so well and Arabs are the lowest scum on Earth because they killed all of theirs. Have you ever seen a black man in Arabia, they ask me. Well, no, but I haven’t been there yet. Americans treated their slaves well? What do you mean? They let them live and procreate! Well, Americans are smart business folks and they understood that procreation between the slaves (and the slave-owners and slaves – you should see their expressions when I bring up Thomas Jefferson’s new black descendants!!!) was a lot cheaper than getting more from Africa… what with the transportation and training costs, you know! So devote Christian Tanzanians will tell you that the Arabs are the evil ones. They are also the only ones I have met that believe we are in Iraq to get them rotten terrorists.
Now in Uganda I am learning that the Indians are the evil ones. They were prosperous in this country (I really love the Indian knack for succeeding against all odds) and then they were kicked out. Things got so bad here economically that they were invited back. They came back and they are succeeding again! They seem to be hated for the same reasons the Koreans were hated in L.A. around the time of Rodney King and the last riots. I see a group of people who stick together, are devoted to their familes and friends, help each other launch new businesses and work their butts off to succeed. If Mr. Uganda does not like their efforts, visit another business. It’s hardly like Indians have taken over the country.
Who will be the hated ones in Rwanda? Who are you hating today? Is it Muslims because of a band of criminals led by Osama? Or Israelis? Or blacks? Or Asians? Or how about all those stinkin’ Mexicans? I bet every group is hated by some other group on this planet. We need an attack by Martians to galvanize all of this hate against something extra-terrestrial. I’m still convinced 98% of the people of this planet are the same decent people that we identify ourselves being and I wonder why we let the other 2% cloud our judgement.
Tags: Travel
vagabondrick
Leave a Reply