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With the flooding, I am getting a little cabin fever and decided to drive over to the Quad Cities last night about 8 pm. I played a game called Mississippi Stud Poker until 3 am. In that process I was sitting with mostly folks from Iowa. I had a nice conversation with the fireman from Davenport Iowa who was about 35 and had a first grader in Private Catholic schools which was kicking his butt on tuition. He was a funny guy, and was to fun to play cards with, but later he got very dark. He looked over to a blackjack table and there were about four Oriental players with about eight hundred dollars of 25 dollar chips. He atart talking to the dealer that he cannot stand people not speaking English, and that how did these people get in this country. He finally said it is not fair. How do they make their money and how can they always have so many chips. The Dealer then chipped in that they were small business owners who did not pay their employees, and probably cheated on their taxes.
I looked over at the table and these players were having quiet fun and were not bothering anybody. The dealer had talked about buying a house and had an offer in a home which was going to close in early September. They were two nice people who had these hateful stereotypes toward Orientals.
I then got up at 11 am and had to meet with customers on the other side of the state near lake Michigan and the Wisconsin border at a place called Vernon Hills. They had a Mall called Hawthorne Mall, and I got their early and decided I would get an ice cream cone as it has been five years since I was in a Mall.
I was amazed in this booming area with all kinds of economic activity in an upper middle class region with all kinds of diversity. I saw Jews, Arabs, Pakistanis, Indians, South American, Blacks, Mexicans, Orientals,and white people old and young walking with other diverse people. This was particularly true among the young people. It was the fricking United Nations. Yet, on the Iowa Casino it was white people wearing a baseball cap and jeans like me working at John Deere, Cat, Purina, or one of the many factories in the area and they were not living in diversity, and obviously shared resentment toward foreign people.
In the span of two days, I saw where people were co-existing and doing well economically, and I saw the fear and prejudice of foreigners where every day they are worried that Manufacturing was going to be gone. There are no simple answers to get beyond hate and prejudice, but it starts when people can live with people who do not look like them and respect their differences. It will be a slow process in America, but diverse young people are being Americanized at a Mall, and a fireman is frightened and angry about those who do not speak clear English and do not look like him. Trump voters are out there in larger numbers than the press has any idea.
I looked over at the table and these players were having quiet fun and were not bothering anybody. The dealer had talked about buying a house and had an offer in a home which was going to close in early September. They were two nice people who had these hateful stereotypes toward Orientals.
I then got up at 11 am and had to meet with customers on the other side of the state near lake Michigan and the Wisconsin border at a place called Vernon Hills. They had a Mall called Hawthorne Mall, and I got their early and decided I would get an ice cream cone as it has been five years since I was in a Mall.
I was amazed in this booming area with all kinds of economic activity in an upper middle class region with all kinds of diversity. I saw Jews, Arabs, Pakistanis, Indians, South American, Blacks, Mexicans, Orientals,and white people old and young walking with other diverse people. This was particularly true among the young people. It was the fricking United Nations. Yet, on the Iowa Casino it was white people wearing a baseball cap and jeans like me working at John Deere, Cat, Purina, or one of the many factories in the area and they were not living in diversity, and obviously shared resentment toward foreign people.
In the span of two days, I saw where people were co-existing and doing well economically, and I saw the fear and prejudice of foreigners where every day they are worried that Manufacturing was going to be gone. There are no simple answers to get beyond hate and prejudice, but it starts when people can live with people who do not look like them and respect their differences. It will be a slow process in America, but diverse young people are being Americanized at a Mall, and a fireman is frightened and angry about those who do not speak clear English and do not look like him. Trump voters are out there in larger numbers than the press has any idea.