Coming home today from the daily dog walk, my dog saw my neighbor & her dog outside and absolutely had to say hi. Our neighbor is great. I could pontificate about her greatness, how she takes care of Max when we're away, watches her grandchildren,...but that's not the point of this post.
Her brother & sister-in-law are visiting with their dog. After we got over the pleasantries of dog-ownership, dog-breeds & weather the conversation accidentally turned to politics. These very "moderate" (not) leaning folks are voting McCain and it's rather clear that their big issue is abortion. I very carefully defused the issue with an agreement that we're all faithful people and that we can simply respect eachother's position. Then the brother makes an aside comment about Obama's being Muslim.
I was floored. In that instance, I wanted to shout at this nice retired gentleman, "WHAT ARE YOU STUPID?" I wanted to point out all the fundamental problems with the lies he's obviously been spoon-fed. I wanted to remind him that this is a fundamentally pluralist society and that Muslims have died defending his right to say stupid stuff like that.
Instead, I took a deep breath, remembered how much my neighbor means to me, and beat a hasty retreat.
2 comments:
That is a rough situation.
My daughter's friend announced in class that she was going to be Sarah Palin for Halloween. My wife and I suggested that Big Sister just ignore it...although neither of us know what we'll say when she shows up at our door.
There is no good way to address these crazy people when they are our neighbors. Politics, Religion, and Fall Leaves are the third-rails of over-the-fence neighborliness. You just have to not agree, while also not strenuously disagreeing, and get the hell out of there.
I think you did the best you could. If it were someone you knew well perhaps you could have said, "Actually I am pretty sure he's Christian. But it was nice talking with you and I think I need to get my dog home now."
But even that took me a moment to come up with and I am sure I couldn't have done it on the spot. It might be easier to handle this kind of crazy when they aren't neighbors. Maybe that's why so many non-Iowans end up stumping for people in Iowa during the primaries...takes the fear of bad neighbors off when you'll never have to see these people again.
Trinks came home today and told me someone told her that Obama was going to take away everything kids like. I carefully explained to her that people were entitled to vote which ever way they were comfortable, but they shouldn't lie about the other candidate. I then explained that Obama has children. Let the darn election be over all ready!!!!
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