Gentlemen, may I speak frankly?
You amaze me. In a world constantly in search of ways to follow its worse instincts, you have made it easier to do so.
Bigots like to point out that every prejudice is based on a kernel of truth – small perhaps, they say, but there. Someone of Italian heritage steals a car – Mafioso. Someone whose name ends in “berg” or “stein” is arrested for embezzlement – cheapskate Jews. Name ends in “arez” busted for grand theft auto? Damn spics are at it again. A Van something or a Windsor, Smith or Alden involved in stock manipulation and “old money” is again ripping off the poor and the middle class. And everyone knows that the DemocratRepublicans are a bunch of thieves. “See? Told you so. You just can’t trust those damn ______s!” Frankly, I’m surprised you guys didn’t pull a few Africans, Asians, and Muslims into the scam. It could have been a clean sweep. Still you did manage to stigmatize all of your own ancestors:
“Hey, you looking for a steal on a Kosher kidney?” “Can I get you a congressman with that taco?” “I dare say, that 50 dollar bill looks a tad tarnished. Shall I send it out to the cleaners?” “Wanna a real deal on a building permit? Here’s an offer you can’t refuse.” Social absurdities pulled from bad movies back into the mainstream of American conversation. If it is within your emotional repertoire, gentlemen – although I doubt it is – you should be ashamed.
You see guys, here’s the problem; I’m not really worried about thoughtful people. They will realize that your criminality has nothing to do with your ethnicity or your religion. You are not Italians or Jews or Latinos or blue blood Christians of one stripe or another – you are thugs. You are all, no doubt, in varying degrees of self-denial, but you are thugs nonetheless; and your ultimate victim - human tolerance - has always been very, very, fragile. That is why I am quite concerned about the “less than thoughtful;” those whose social reality is constructed by the “sneer and shout” journalism that seems to dominate the contemporary media. Your actions filtered through those outlets will do us all harm.
Intolerance and bigotry grow best in the dark soil of fear, watered by storms of hatred, and sheltered by hedges of ignorance. You have abetted that twisted ecology no end. You have given just about everyone in America an excuse to listen to their more fearful and hateful selves and hear a corrupted version of what sounds like truth: “those people” really are “that way.” You have given hope to the bigots and in doing so you have damaged us all.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “shame” thus:
I. 1. a. The painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous in one's own conduct or circumstances (or in those of others whose honour or disgrace one regards as one's own), or of being in a situation which offends one's sense of modesty or decency.
It is somewhat complex I realize. But hopefully you will have a number of years in small rooms to ponder those complexities.
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