Vision Circle

Over Sandwiches

This afternoon, I and a couple of my workmates had a lunch about serious subjects, war and peace, religion and politics, all the things you are not supposed to talk about. While it has become a cliche to talk about how 'diverse' America is, it's always a pleasant surprise to poke one's head out of the shell every once in a while to find out where people are coming from. For me, that's the point, the origins and the evolutions, not so much the destination.

I tried to shut up long enough for them to teach me something and as usual, the effects of the experience will sink in sometime soon. Within the span of the hour, over Quizno's hot subs (hoagies? grinders? po-boys?), we hit on several interesting issues and ideas.

• Palestinian's right of return
• What Algerians and Turks have in common.
• Religion as a form of teaching
• Parallels between Mennonites and Muslims.
• Malcolm X, Subhas Bose, Louis Farrakhan, WD Muhammed
• Women in the Iranian Parliament
• Gorgeous Iranian Women
• Jerusalem as an International Protectorate
• French Troops in Cote DIvoire
• Islamists, Islamicists, Extremists, Wahabists
• American Ignorance of most of the above.

Every once in a while, I make a pest of myself and beg the questions of difference. Sometimes I'm more aggessive. Other times I let things flow. BK, a bright young man of Syrian extract offers the same opportunity for learning and embarrassment as I do, being a black republican, as does KK a computer programming Mennonite now bathing in the heathen sunlight of Southern California. It's as unlikely a troika as one can expect, except that we're all in the computer business, where this kind of unhomogenized demographic is rather common. I take advantage when I can.

The issues I am sparked to persue further are with a simple literacy map of places and movements. It's always useful to break up the 'middle east' into different countries and factions other than "Israel and the Rest" as our idiot media often does. So look to me for a simple grid one of these days. Furthermore, I'm curious to watch Islam in post-colonial Africa. We shall see.