Turning the other cheek

I heard an incredible story last week on NPR.

There is a project called Story Corps that gets people to record their stories as sort of an oral history project. I'll save you the time and the link and print the transcript here with credit to NPR. This is Jesus' instruction to turn the other cheek, or go the extra mile etc. played out - no, LIVED out in real life.

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

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Morning Edition, March 28, 2008 · Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

Immigration

There has plenty ado about immigration and McCain and this being one (of many) issues where the conservative rank-and-file wing of the GOP, takes issue with him.

I confess several things: Yes, this is a really big deal. No, I do not have a great idea on how to solve this thing. Is it THE thing on which I will base my vote for President? No.

While there are parts of this that certainly are moral issues – I’m not ready to put all my voting eggs in this one basket.

It is quite possible that a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian or a combination of any or all of these just might have the long-term answer for how to deal with this thorny issue.

I hope we get a smart enough person in the White House who will surround themselves with even smarter people who aren’t afraid to stand up to him/her and say “No, Mr(s). President, you are wrong.”

I got to the middle of a book by Newt Gingrich (Real Change) before the library said I had to take it back. Many do not like Gingrich or agree with him but regardless he seems like an extremely smart guy. One thing he talked about is some legislation called “Simpson-Mazzoli.” In 1986 under then Pres. Reagan, this law was passed that supposedly would solve our immigration mess. 1986 – 22 years ago.

It was Yogi Berra who coined the “Just like déjà vu …” phrase which seems so apropos here. Read this article [ Enacting Immigration Reform, Again By Romano L. Mazzoli and Alan K. Simpson] which can be found here.

Wikipedia also has a reasonable summary. OR you can go to the Library of Congress which also has information.

Spanish/American philosopher and poet George Santayana (1863-1952), said something to the effect that he who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it. Seems like all of our politicos would do well to review the whys of this 20+ year old legislation and why it didn’t solve the problem and apparently doesn’t/didn’t work before they spend countless additional hours trying to re-invent the same wheel.

The GOP, McCain and Hispanics

I know I’m beating this one to death but sometime a week or so ago good ole Daniel Schorr was on NPR talking about how Obama is getting a large % of the African-American vote (no surprise) and that Hillary is getting a large share of the Hispanic vote (slightly more surprising to me.) It shows that we still have other racial divides going on in our country if Hispanics are attracted to Clinton and not Obama. Are they uncomfortable with voting for an African-American?

Maybe I am out of touch but it has been 30 or more years ago when I was growing up in Texas and as more immigrants from Mexico and points south started coming in, there were problems between Blacks and Latinos. I guess I naively thought that was all history and minorities united under a more common umbrella. Guess not.

My point – as before - the GOP must start reaching out to minorities. A co-worker pointed out to me that they DO in Florida. OK – point taken I guess but I don't know much about Florida.

I was in southern Arkansas recently and without sounding prejudicial, you can’t help but notice as you move south, there is always more color in the aisles when you go to WalMart, etc. It has usually been black.

My cousin in Arkansas informed me that in her county, there are now more Hispanics than African-Americans.

If the GOP can find a convincing way to attract Hispanics, they can build a formidable answer to the Obama surge – if he should go on to get the nomination. If Hillary manages to survive and run, then any efforts to win Hispanics will still siphon votes away from her. Voting GOP is not anathema to Hispanics. I seem to recall both Bushes got a fair amount of Latino support in their respective elections.

I don’t know what McCain can do about this right now. I’m not aware of a known Hispanic that is ready to be on the ticket as a VP, but if he can find one, once again I think this would be just plain old good politics.

And now that he can relax and raise money while Clinton and Obama try to decide who’s name will go at the top of the ticket, maybe he can come up with someone to run with.