Sinking In
There are moments when life almost seems normal.
Those moments pass quickly.
A lot of jobs are still going...
...a lot of guys are asking me questions.
I’m their safety guy, who else would they ask?
“I don’t know much,” I’ve said a lot of the time.
“Should we still be coming to work?” One guy asked me.
“I’ve asked myself that each morning,” I said. “I guess we keep coming until they tell us not to.”
“Is that safe?” The guy asked.
“Probably not,” I answered. “Who knows?”
And the scary part of all of it is that no one knows. No one REALLY knows!
“There have only been a hundred deaths,” another guy mentioned.
“So far,” I said. “The number is going to get bigger, and it’s not just a number. It’s people!”
People who are dying.
“More people die in car accidents,” the guy said.
“And we try to stop those.”
I’m not quite so sure how people are so breezy when it comes to the deaths of people they don’t know.
And don’t get me started on the thing that’s really getting under my skin right now:
“Chinese Virus.”
That is what Donny T is calling it.
Why?
“It came from chi-nuh!” He said.
And that’s the origin of it, but here’s the thing:
It’s putting a target on the back of every Asian-American!!!
I have a couple of buddies who are Asians.
They have been in America for years and years and years. They are good men.
“We better not see the Chinese fu**er come out here,” a man said as I spoke to them about the virus.
I mentioned the name of the guy they were speaking about.
“Yeah. He better not show his face!”
That’s because of what Trump is saying.
“First of all, he’s not Chinese,” I said. “Secondly, he’s a friend of mine. Thirdly, he’s a good man with kids, a wife and he’s worked in this country for more than two decades. Finally, he has nothing to do with the virus. So, shut the hell up.”
There was complete silence.
The guy who had said it looked at his boots.
Then he said this:
“They’re filthy people who eat garbage. They got us sick.”
I walked away.
I don’t even recognize this country anymore.
The guy I was talking to isn’t an exception to the rule.
He also wasn’t turned this way in the last three years...
...but he feels emboldened to paint every Asian with the same brush...
...and that’s wrong...
...no matter where he heard it.
It’s sinking in that we are in for the long haul and that it is going to be a scary, horrible thing if we spend our down time painting targets on the backs of innocent Americans...
...Asian-Americans.
Those moments pass quickly.
A lot of jobs are still going...
...a lot of guys are asking me questions.
I’m their safety guy, who else would they ask?
“I don’t know much,” I’ve said a lot of the time.
“Should we still be coming to work?” One guy asked me.
“I’ve asked myself that each morning,” I said. “I guess we keep coming until they tell us not to.”
“Is that safe?” The guy asked.
“Probably not,” I answered. “Who knows?”
And the scary part of all of it is that no one knows. No one REALLY knows!
“There have only been a hundred deaths,” another guy mentioned.
“So far,” I said. “The number is going to get bigger, and it’s not just a number. It’s people!”
People who are dying.
“More people die in car accidents,” the guy said.
“And we try to stop those.”
I’m not quite so sure how people are so breezy when it comes to the deaths of people they don’t know.
And don’t get me started on the thing that’s really getting under my skin right now:
“Chinese Virus.”
That is what Donny T is calling it.
Why?
“It came from chi-nuh!” He said.
And that’s the origin of it, but here’s the thing:
It’s putting a target on the back of every Asian-American!!!
I have a couple of buddies who are Asians.
They have been in America for years and years and years. They are good men.
“We better not see the Chinese fu**er come out here,” a man said as I spoke to them about the virus.
I mentioned the name of the guy they were speaking about.
“Yeah. He better not show his face!”
That’s because of what Trump is saying.
“First of all, he’s not Chinese,” I said. “Secondly, he’s a friend of mine. Thirdly, he’s a good man with kids, a wife and he’s worked in this country for more than two decades. Finally, he has nothing to do with the virus. So, shut the hell up.”
There was complete silence.
The guy who had said it looked at his boots.
Then he said this:
“They’re filthy people who eat garbage. They got us sick.”
I walked away.
I don’t even recognize this country anymore.
The guy I was talking to isn’t an exception to the rule.
He also wasn’t turned this way in the last three years...
...but he feels emboldened to paint every Asian with the same brush...
...and that’s wrong...
...no matter where he heard it.
It’s sinking in that we are in for the long haul and that it is going to be a scary, horrible thing if we spend our down time painting targets on the backs of innocent Americans...
...Asian-Americans.
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