Saturday, July 9, 2011

Right Wing Extremism

I have encountered many different people in my time at my new job. I have been cussed out, yelled at, and treated like I am one of the dumbest persons on the face of the earth. Nothing however has made me feel the way I did a few Saturdays ago. We had a couple in the office who were of Cuban nationality. While this couple was renting the car, another woman came in to return one. Out of the blue she decided to ask what country the Cuban couple was from. Just to keep things simple from this point on, we will call the returning lady Laura, and the Cuban couple Hugo and Dominga. Dominga answered Laura, with only a hint of a Cuban accent, "I am from America." Laura responded in an extremely condescending tone, "Oh really, that's great, are you here on a visa or are you a U.S. citizen?" Dominga decided not to answer so Hugo cut in and answered for her saying, "She is a U.S. citizen. She has lived here 42 years. I have been here 18 but am also a U.S. citizen." Laura, looking very interested replied, "That's great, so are things here in America very different than things in you're country?"

I was very impressed with how calm the Cuban couple stayed, not putting on like the questioning really bothering them. Honestly though I felt like Laura's next question was going to be asking them if they came to this country on a real boat or if they just strapped pontoons made of trash bags to a Ford F150 and floated it from Cuba to Key West. Some how this lady went from interrogating this poor couple to telling them they should think about purchasing food insurance because it was coming. After the Cuban couple left the office, Laura turned her attention to telling me how to live my life.

She started spouting off about how Obama was just a puppet and did whatever they told him to do. I never was made aware of who "they" were but they were the ones calling the shots. Laura told me to pay off all my credit cards and think seriously about buying food insurance. I told her I only had one credit card and I paid it off every month. I also told her I went and bought food at the grocery store every single week and bought food. Upon hearing this you would have thought I had just found a cure for cancer. She thought I was the smartest person alive and she told me about how her mom and her were actually heading to Sam's after they left so they could stock up on food. I immediately imagined her with a ton of food surrounding her and her unfortunate family in a bunker 15 ft under ground with Palin '12 posters all over the wall, just waiting for the day "they" pull the trigger on their plan to take over the world. People never cease to amaze me.