I'm sorry, Wondy. I know you probably think I was trying to bait you somehow, and I honestly wasn't. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to understand where you're coming from, and lest you think I'm going to rip into you personally, I appreciate your honesty and, yes, vulnerability in giving me a straight answer.
That said, I would be remiss if I did not reply by saying I do not agree with a single damn bit of that.
This is not a personal attack. This is me saying what I read there is indistinguishable from the talk-radio-fueled conspiracy-theorist screed I often get from customers in my store who are either coming from or going to the reduced-cost community psychiatric clinic across the street. I'm not calling you crazy, but I am saying you're repeating crazy. At best it's crazy. At worst it's institutional xenophobic paranoia of the basest sort, and your conception of assimilation would make the Borg blush.
I don't know you personally outside of this site, and I'm not questioning that you are a good person, but if I heard an individual saying those things in person, I would not be comfortable allowing them around my family. I am doubtful we could find any sort of common ground on this issue, but honestly that makes me less angry than sad. I'm not sure whether it's just your choice of informational input, or traumatic experiences, or upbringing, or whatever. I just wish you could see the extent to which you're voluntarily limiting your ability to engage your community and, yes, your nation. I would like to think you're better than that. Our shared heritage across all ethnicities, languages, and faiths is and will always be a richer source of inspiration and truth than any sad, compartmentalized tribal identity, and the broader story of all the world's peoples offers a brighter future than the dim, narrow, carefully parsed glorification of empire you're choosing to call Western civilization. So now you know where I'm coming from. I hope you know I don't mean you any ill will on a personal level, but I'm not going to just sit here and bait you and be snarky without meeting transparency with transparency - agree or disagree, you deserve better. The hyperconnectivity of today's world means our neighborhood has never been bigger; I simply choose to see my neighbors the way a first-century noncitizen Palestinian Jew taught me to.
