re: #197 Surabaya Stew

OT: Just had a disturbing conversation with a co-worker of mine.

He’s European, has lived here for 20+ years, and is a very sweet-natured and cheerful guy, albiet somewhat conserative socially. We were sharing 9/11 stories (since we were both in the city at the time) and were just wrapping up our conversation when he mentioned the “murderers and the mosque”. Turns out he’s dead-set against the Cordoba House and any Mosque built. To him, all Muslims are murders. No facts I could do could bring sanity to him.

Needless to say, this makes me deeply unhappy. He’s not an idiot, yet emotion and rage have got a hold of him; scary to see in a guy who never gets angry. He’s not alone in my office with these feelings, I now suspect.

All I can say, my dear Lizards, is that it’s going to be a long road ahead for our country (and world) to overcome this.

PS. Wonder how he’ll react when he finds out my wife is Muslim…

The anthropologist in me tries to understand the need many people have to seek patterns and categorize, especially as it comes to groups that are different from their own. Pattern recognition and snap judgments are a valuable survival trait. At the end of the day, however, you are still a rational being and responsible for your choices.