Xenophobia and the Giant Plastic Chicken...
In September, I posted a photograph of the giant plastic chicken in Winchester, Tennessee.
My wife later reported that the chicken had a 'for sale' sign on it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money...
I don't know where my priorities are, but I didn't give the giant chicken another thought after that.
Until yesterday, that is.
As I drove through the town of Estill Springs, guess what I saw???
It can't be a coincidence can it? This same chicken that once graced 'Buen Dia' now stands guard at 'Sample Family Restaurant'.
Apart from the fact that it's a chicken, I like the symbolism: Anglo and Hispanic folks in our area get along well enough to purchase idiotic marketing props from one another. So we might just be able to live next door to each other, go to church together and love each other in a neighborly way.
On the other hand...
In September I also posted a photo of the sign in front of the tire shop in Tullahoma denying service to non English speakers.
The guy who runs this place is clearly an ass who seems to hate Hispanics for the simple reason that they did not have the common courtesy to be born in the U.S.
Mainly, though, it is because he is an ass.
Oh yeah, he has a new sign too:
I'm sure the guy gets comments about this sign. Unfortunately, they're probably along the lines of, "Hell, yeah!" as opposed to what I first thought (which is unpublishable on a family friendly blog like this one).
I thought about calling him up or walking in there - speak some Spanish to him, tell him that God loves him even though he is a crass and thoughtless bigot, remind him that some of his ancestors were most likely illegal immigrants to this country and so on...
But I'd lose my cool and end up in jail so I think I will write him a nice letter instead.
Some of you could do the same except that you wouldn't know where to send it.
That's too bad.
Oh, one more thing...
Mid-State Tire and Auto Repair
500 South Anderson Street
Tullahoma, Tennessee 37388
posted by Art @ 11:25 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
hahaha!! that address part is a well placed joke.. nice!
i don't know if i would tell him that God loves him. he might say "hell yeah he does!" then he might claim to be doing god's work.
funny!
Do you think they'd pay any attention to an Aussie disapproving their sign? Especially one who writes inane comments at practice blogsites???
hmmm .. why is it that people always say chicken .. why isn't it a big plastic hen?
Hmmm...something to think about...provocation is a kind of manipulation.Someone pushes a button and we react.That is when we are playing into the hands of the manipulator.When we react, we have been manipulated.Most of us do that.ppl can just push a button and put us off or on, like a light bulb.That is when we are not in control of ourselves,but that of others.The same ppl who can inflate our egos, take us high up, can deflate us and bring us down too.Both are manipulations.
The best thing to do here is to IGNORE.
Be like a river...someone throws a burning torch at you...it will remain burning only till it reaches you.Once it touches you, it will auto-extingush...
Be your own master, rather than a slave of other's manipulations. Nobody can force you to do anything.
If someone abuses me, all I say is, "It is perfectly all right, you wanted to abuse me, you abused me. Feel fulfilled.You have done your work perfectly well. But as far as I am concerned, I dont take your insults. And unless I take them, they are meaningless."
Dizzy has a point there about provocations equalling manipulations, but I think that in Art's case, the outcome is NOT what the owner of this business expected. Obviously he's trying to influence folks who read his sign to his way of thinking. Personally, I'd like to see him inundated with letters telling him what a bigot he truly is.
Gavin, I'm sure... God does love him and all his warts though...
Carolanne, he probably wouldn't pay attention to us at all, Aussie or not.
Nabeel, chicken is more generic, I think. Rooster and hen are sex-specific. I guess it should be the giant-plastic-rooster then:)
Stacie and Dizzy, I'm conflicted about this really. I agree that we should not let external events trigger our 'hot buttons' yet, Edmund Burke said, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' and I truly believe that.
Good men (and women) doing nothing is how the National Socialists were able to come to power in pre-war Germany.
Also, if 'good men' like Gandhi, King, Bonhoeffer or Jesus of Nazareth had 'done nothing', the world would be a much sorrier place than it is even now.
I don't mean to equate my indignation at this guy's signs with those monumentous struggles and sacrifices, but I do believe that it is sometimes in the small fights that we win or lose or make a difference.
I am fighting this guy's predudices in my own small way and I won't apologize for that. It will most likely make very little difference in the end but who knows?
One thing to think about, Dizzy, if you lived in this country, you would be denied service at this shop because you are 'one of them'.
I prefer to think of you as 'one of us'.
'We' are 'us' and anything that opposes that view is repulsive to me and I will do whatever small thing I can to let people know how I feel about that view and hopefully influence a few of them to consider that we are all one race regardless of our language, ethnicity, national origin or religious background.
I will now dismount my soapbox and retire to bed where I will dream of a world where such discussions are not necessary...
you have a point there..a strong counter point.I agree wid you from that point of view.Maybe, a personal injury can be ignored, but not a generalised one.Moreover this one sounds like an insult. Maybe, an injury can be forgotten, but an insult can't be ignored, and moreso, if it gives a leverage to evil, like you say.
Not everyone, can have a strong emotional quotient to forbear such insults.And so, someone gooto fight really.I guess u are right there...if not for ourselves, we shud do it for others...
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