My Crazy Country
America is a nutty, nutty land. I went to a Mexican restaurant for supper tonight. The hostess who seated me was a lovely Hispanic lady named Rosa. My waiter was a Slavic man named Dimitri, and the waitress for the next table was a Nordic lady named Elsa. The busboy was a nice young black man named Jamal, and one of the bartenders was an Arabic man named Mohammed. Only in America could you go to one ethnic-type restaurant and be served by people from five different ethnic backgrounds.
I find it all fascinating. I love different languages and different cultures. I’m very interested in the ways that different groups of people have developed their languages and traditions and taboos over the centuries. But I think America is unique and amazing in its ability to accept and amalgamate all of these different people into a single, relatively unified whole.
I’m saddened when I see instances of prejudice and non-acceptance. But then I think of all the cultural groups that have overcome prejudicial and unfair treatment to become accepted and assimilated into our American culture, and I have hope that one day those who are looked upon with suspicion and intolerance will find that they have broken through those barriers, proven themselves, and become accepted and valued members of society.
I think it is important that people retain those aspects of their cultures that remind them of their roots. But I think it is important that people also look around them and adopt those aspects of other cultures that can enrich and enhance their lives. And I see a lot of that in America. In the mid-sized city of about 80,000 in which I live, I can choose from any number of ethnic cuisines in my area: Cajun, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Russian, Thai … I think there’s even an honest-to-goodness English pub run by a British man and his wife. And that list doesn’t even include the fast food places; it’s only sit-down restaurants. What must a place like Chicago or New York offer by way of variety?!
And that’s just the restaurants. Our phone directory lists 92 different denominations of houses of worship, including churches, synagogues, and mosques, plus non-denominational and inter-denominational places of worship. And many of the different churches list services for languages other than English: Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Greek. How’s that for variety?
That’s what I mean. This is an amazing country. And the more I see, the more amazing I find it. And the more amusing. Where else in the world would a guy named Dimitri bring you an enchilada de pollo and a sopapilla?