Outlook

So today is my birthday. I'm 28. I like birthdays. I like celebrating, I love hearing from people I love, and getting older doesn't really seem like any big deal to me. Maybe it will later on in life. I hope not.

However, an extremely frustrating thing happened at work the other day that really re-woke me up to some of the major issues in this country.

First, to be really clear, I definitely believe that people can dislike the current president's policies without being racist. To me, equating the two is ridiculous. It is apples and oranges. Before the story, that needed to be said.

So I work at a small store that has a cafe in the back. The cafe is a separate business, but the people there are friendly and fun. I talk to them often, but there is one waitress who I just haven't been able to connect with at all. As a small town cafe, there are regulars. Usually, this means older men who come in every week and get coffee or breakfast.

There are these guys who come in every Thursday morning. They stay about 3 hours. They are funny, but they are really really really Republican. There isn't anything wrong with that, but it is vital to the story. They also really hate Sarah Palin. But that is because they are from Alaska and not because they are Republicans. I only mention it because it is a riot to hear them talk about her. They don't bash her based on her gender or looks or anything like that. They don't like her based on policy and decisions and THAT I can be on board with.

So these guys are talking. They are talking about the health care plan - because that is what they always talk about. They are older men who are dealing with medicare and one is dealing with veteran benefits, so this really affects them. They have read the entire bill. Seriously, the whole thing. They have decided that they agree with it. And again, they are very very very Republican. So I find this hysterical. They have tried to involve me in the conversation several times, so this week, I asked some clarifying questions. They were impressed that I actually knew things about politics. They asked about my party affiliations and I was honest with them.

You know what these older, white men from Alaska said to me? One of them looked at me and sadly said, (this is verbatim) "I don't agree with all of Obama's policies. I think he is kind of a socialist. I liked his health care plan better before other people got hold of it and changed everything. I feel bad for him because I think he won't get re-elected because of his race. I think people believe the garbage that is being said about him. It is sad that people think a black man can't be a good president because he is black." Now again, I definitely don't believe every person who dislikes the president is racist. That would be ridiculous.

Take these men. They don't like him. They also didn't like McCain, but I digress. These men have really thought things through. They are pretty enlightened. They know why they believe what they believe. They actually don't happen to believe there is a very good Republican candidate. They happen to believe that Romney has the best shot. (But then they laugh about what conservative Christians will do in the Mormon vs. Democrat situation.) However, these men are able to see that President Obama has gotten more flack and crap because of his race and they are able to understand that this is nuts. Coming from older white men in Alaska, this is a big deal. In general, people in Alaska are horribly racist towards black people. That is an over-arching statement, but it is really true. In fact, this is why adopting from Africa is off the table for us right now. It wouldn't be okay (with us) to raise a child here because of what would happen. So for these men to see some of the racism involved in the country was astounding.

Later that same day, the waitress in the back was talking loudly to a regular customer. She is maybe 20 years old. She said the following (verbatim) "I'm definitely not a racist, but Asians freak me out."

Can you believe that? The stupidity involved in that statement speaks for itself.

I'm starting to think it speaks for the country. I think we have decided that younger people aren't racist because they have grown up seeing more people who don't look like them. But I think that the issue has been sort of brushed over and ignored because assumptions have been made that younger people are fine.

Clearly, they aren't fine. This generation (scarily) might be even worse.

It freaks me out.

That is all. Does anyone have any thoughts?