It's a Scary Place Inside Your Head

terrorism, bigotry, racism, fear,

[disturbing images below the fold]

I have a devised a test so you can tell if you're a wingnut or sane.

Two women wearing headscarves walk into a McDonalds. Do you (a) not even notice them as you has cheeseburger, or do you (b) watch their every move because they might be ISLAMoFACIsTERRORISTS and ISLAMoFACIsTERRORISTS are known for blowing up McDonalds franchises in the greater Pittsburgh area?

Wednesday night, we all went over to our local McDonald's for some food. I didn't have the gumption to really cook anything of substance, and state law requires us to feed the kids. It doesn't say WHAT we have to feed them (yet) but only that they have full bellies.

Sitting there eating, I happened to notice a couple of families who must have been traveling in the dining room. The women were wearing hijabs (the muslim headscarf), and my radar kicked on. I sat through the rest of my meal not paying attention to my family, but watching their moves.

What a scary place inside your head is, bngfan. Really, it's tragic. Racist and rude and tragic. Are you filled with this kind of terror every time you see brown skinned people, or just when you see brown skinned people in scarves?

I would like to point out two things. If you truly feel that this level of terror was appropriate to the situation, then the terrorists really have won. Their goal is, after all, to instill terror, and they seem to have succeeded admirably with you.

Secondly, has it occurred to you at all that those families could well regard us white Americans with the same terror? 'Twasn't the brown skinned desert folk who did this:

or this:

or this:

Those were, by the way, the least disturbing images of our violence that I could find. Yeah, we're so much better.