Any views or opinions expressed in this column are of the individual, group, or entity who submitted it and not the publication, owner(s), its advertisers, or affiliates.
Disliking people because they are different is a strange business.
It brings to mind the guy whose life was being threatened by a bank robber who was holding a gun to the guy’s head. All the guy could think of was to ask the bank robber to protect him from the Hispanic security guard, the Jewish policeman and the Muslim bank customer.
When talking to people who have a hard time dealing with others who are not exactly like them, it is hard to know what to say. Emotions control reason. Generalizations have grown based on specific examples.
During the month of July, I went fishing on a lake in northern Canada. There were people there from all walks of life. There were big business people, small entrepreneurs, a man who had a plumbing business and his wife, people who made money on the stock market and those who made it the old fashioned way by working their tails off.
There were two elderly gentlemen who were brothers, one retired from teaching and the other who had been a car mechanic. There was a retired doctor who had served as a tank commander in two major conflicts. He made me feel proud to be an American, and I had the privilege of having dinner with him.
There were people from Eastern Europe, people who worked in Japan, the Philippines, and elsewhere, even Republicans from the good old USA and Democrats too.
I felt pretty good because there was a heart specialist and his buddy, a dentist, in camp for a week and a half. I figured if I caught a big fish and my heart leaped into my throat, I could get one or the other to fix the problem.
There was one fisherman with whom I paid particular attention. He was up early in the morning, one of the first out on the lake, and one of the last in at the end of the day. However, when I chatted with him it turned out that he was not a fan of diversity. He did not like black people. He did not like Hispanic people. He did not like people who knelt down on a rug to pray. And he was not shy about offering his views to anyone who would listen.
This fisherman was outspoken. And he was very sure of himself. It was hard for me to talk with him while I was clenching my teeth and biting my tongue.
When he was on the water he spent a lot of time browbeating his young Canadian guide. I heard that the guide had a lot of trouble understanding why this American fisherman was so set against immigration, against people of color, against people who were non-Christian, and even against people who did not speak English as their first language.
The guide later told me that he tried to explain how Canada, like the USA, is a country of immigrants. It is dominated by two official languages – English and French – but there are other languages of prominence as well – Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian and more. Although the country relies on the metric and Celsius systems, many people understand the English equivalents and convert easily to Fahrenheit.
With the exception of a number of native peoples including the Inuit (who speak Inuktitut), everyone else has come from all corners of the globe. They get along and see each other as making their country more interesting, a plethora of color, backgrounds, customs, differing traditions and beauty. He pointed out the diversity in the guides themselves, who were from various backgrounds with heritages from different countries.
The guide told me how difficult it was for him to stay in the boat with this fisherman. Short of leaving the fisherman on shore someplace, there was not much else the guide could do but to listen and try to offer a bit of reason.
The fisherman asked the guide what happens when foreigners or immigrants commit all these crimes? The young Canadian said that in his country that the person, and only that person, who committed the crime would be held accountable – and that Canadians on the most part do not blame a whole group of people for the actions of one person. Canadians do not always get along, but everyone – from the government on down – attempts to emphasize the positives in people.
Upon reflection I, too, noticed a mutual respect among people of differing backgrounds during the time I spent in Canada on the way to and the way home from the fishing lodge. At the hotel, and at a shopping mall nearby, there were men, women (two holding hands), Muslim, Hindu, Christian, English, French, Indian, Pakistani, Near Eastern, Pacific Rim and other peoples who I could not identify – all working, resident or visiting like me.
By the end of the week something may have clicked, I noticed the fisherman was no longer overtly expounding on the virtues of an all-white, Christian world, centered on America first, with everyone else being second class. I do not know if the guide was successful in changing this fisherman’s mind or not, but at least he was not so full of himself.
And my tongue had a chance to heal.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, former Shippensburg University Trustee, awarded numerous patents, as well as Founder and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx provides cloud-software for automated sourcing and managing of mail marketing, swag, packaging, and all things print. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.
