One of the things I just can’t keep my mouth shut about is people in the United States refusing to learn or speak English. I don’t even mind if it’s poor English so long as it’s English. When I stopped in at a local convenience store I walked by a couple of guys talking by the entrance. I would not have even noticed if not for the fact they were blocking the entrance and acted as if they did not need to move for me to enter. By the time I picked up a few items I noticed the clerk was having a problem with a Hispanic male. Speaking loudly in Spanish he was getting angry with the young female clerk who obviously could not understand. What little Spanish I do understand is trivial and most would not exactly be considered polite - I recognized a few of those remarks remarks shouted at the clerk.
Trying not to interfere, I patiently waited behind the man while he yelled at the clerk and insulted her. After a few minutes I asked the guy to move along which he did not take very well. At this point I realized he was the same guy who had been standing in the entrance talking to another guy - in English. One can only speculate as to the reason the same guy is now acting as if he does not understand or speak English and acting insulted that neither myself or the clerk speak Spanish. After about five minute of this guy yelling he finally decided to leave the store, knocking a small display off the counter and flipping me off. While the nervous clerk rang up my items I watched the guy go out to his full size Ford truck with Mexican tags. He sat in the truck for a few moments and then came back in with the other guy he had been conversing with earlier.
The second guy started screaming about racism and that he was going to call the company and file a lawsuit because his friend could not shop in there, no one spoke Spanish, and there were no “Mexican signs”. I recall several trips to Mexico. Other than around the border there were no signs in English and no prices marked in English a the shops I visited. Although there were some English speaking people scattered about, it was not enough to count on. If I needed something I absolutely needed to have some way to ask for it. If I did not I had to move on in search of someone who could understand me.
Whether the clerk called or they just happened in on a well timed coffee break, the police arrived and got involved. After a while the main antagonist’s English skills became extraordinarily proficient, this may have had something to do with the handcuffs coming out. The officers decided to let both of the guys go despite being illegal immigrants and both having warrants from Arizona. The police made both of them leave.
So far I have had to wait in line an extra ten minutes, have an argument with an illegal immigrant, wait around for the cops to talk to me, been cussed out in Spanish, and watched criminals leave without arrest. I was getting a little angry. And then some guy starts yelling about how we were mean for harassing the Mexicans.
“Leave them alone you fascists, they just want a better life and to be treated like everyone else.”
When I turn around I see a man wearing a shirt with a cartoon of President Bush as Hitler and another man wearing a “9/11 was an inside job” shirt.
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