Saturday Morning Thread - The Rant Edition [WeirdDave]

OK, I had a much better post on one of the central political issues of our time planned-freemen vs serfs- but I didn't write it yet and it's getting late. I'll probably write that one for next week. Instead I thought I talk about buying tires.

Gingy's SUV needs new shoes as she's about to set off on her annual sojourn to the wilds of Alberta. It's over 5K miles round trip, and when I caught one of her wheels using my phone to call the hair club for tires, I figured I'd better get on the stick. Being a scrounger at heart, and coming from a long line of scroungers (my grandfather owned a second hand store in Texas), I hate buying new tires. It's not that I can't afford them, it's that I don't want to. So I headed out to Rt. 40 to see my buddy whom I'll call Osma (mainly because that's his name).

Being a racist Rethuglican hater, naturally I only want to patronize the businesses of REAL AMERICANS, and I'm proud to say that today I did. Osma is a legal immigrant from Honduras. He came here with his wife and two kids to start a business and make a future for them and he works his ass off. I told him what I needed and together we dived into his vast inventory of used tires, emerging shortly with 4 60,000 mile tires that probably didn't have 1000 miles on them. Osma, his brother and his father descended on the car like locusts. 3 jacks went under the car, pump pump, pump and up it went. Impact wrenches clattered, lugs flew and into the shop went the wheels. Working with the precision of a highly trained dance team, the three of them worked two mounting machines and a balancer. Pop! Whir! Slap! Spin! Hammer! That one's done, into the water tank to check for leaks! And so on.

As he was wheeling the first one back out to my car, Osma and I were talking, and suddenly I got the rant. Those of you who know immigrants from other parts of the world know this rant for sure. I got a version of it last week from a client who is a Lebanese Christian. A guy I know from Communist China has a version that's almost word for word with the one given by friends from Eastern Europe. Osma's went something like this:

"I came here from San Pedro Sula, the most dangerous city in the world. I had to get away, to make a future for my children. Down there 20, 30 people a day get murdered. Every day! Drugs, crime, everybody's corrupt, there's no opportunity. I came here. I worked hard. I started my tire shop. I work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. These people here, they don't know shit. They think they're poor, they've got cars and TVs, they don't know poor. Nobody wants to work. They get food stamps, housing, money. And sit on their asses and complain about not getting more. Fuck them. AND NOW IT'S GETTING MORE AND MORE LIKE WHAT I LEFT. Where can I go then? I came to raise my family and give them a future. Where do I go if this turns to shit?"

With the Lebanese, the focus was harmony between differing groups. With those who have lived Communism it's government control. Hispanics tend to home in on opportunity, but all of the rants have one thing in common, and it's the part I've bolded above, and it's a damn good question. There are no more new frontiers, we have got to make it here. If this shining city on the hill goes dark, what's left?

I'll leave you with one final thought, from one racist hater to another. America is an ideal, not a location, not a people and certainly not a race. Fill my America with 320 million Osmas, chattering away in Spanish, and I'll be one happy gringo. Give me an America filled with 320 million blacks from Africa who eagerly chase the dream, and I'll live a long and full life, a speck of salt in a sea of pepper.

Give me Chinese folks with their godawful music, Indians dancing rings around my lame left footed ass or pale Scandinavians eating the soap. Give me people who see the unbelievably precious gift that is rule of law, who understand that they are responsible for their outcomes and who know hard work is not only it's own reward, but will reward them financially as well. In other words, give my racist, hating ass......Americans.

Oh and the tires? $45 each, mounted, balanced, on the rim and down the road.

posted by Open Blogger at 08:44 AM

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