Evolve Past Hate

To the Editor - Fort Myers News-Press (unprintable, I'm told)

Evolve Past Hate

"I wonder how she got the money to buy all those groceries?" asked the perplexed white elderly shopper of yours truly in the supermarket checkout line.

"Probably because her husband went out and worked for it," I replied with a look that made her recoil into the "some of my best friends are Hispanic" defensive position. "If she was a white woman, you probably wouldn't have batted an eye," I added, laying a guilt trip on her she so correctly deserved. "Oh, I'm a Christian and I would never think like that!" she backpedaled.

Christ-like, yeah right.

True, the woman with two beautiful little children did stock up with over $200 worth of groceries, but I'm guessing she probably dreads going out to public places more than she has to because of all the low-voice comments she has to put up with. I could tell she understood at least some english. The woman quoted previously wasn't the only one I heard making racial slurs: "It's OK if she's legal," I heard one elderly man say.

This kind of hate speech is so adolescent, to hear it from so-called 'mature' people is really disgusting.

The woman who was taking all the abuse did not look like a descendant of the Spanish 'conquistadors'. She was obviously of indigenous origin. And when you think about it long and hard, she has a right to be here more than any of us people of European descent.

So let us suck up our ethnocentric bigotry, face our guilt of being 'settlers' in this land, learn how to get along with, and treat, with dignity, those who were in the 'Americas' before us. We should be thanking them for sharing this land instead of spitting on them.

Frank Gubasta
Fraught Myers, FL

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"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature." Tom Robbins