Rome for the Romans

The job I recently started used to belong to a Mexican.

Take that immigration critics.

Everyone one of you had some ancestor that was an immigrant in the first place, its very likely you've all had an illegal immigrant for an ancestor.

Unless you're 100% "American Indian" this country is just as much yours as someone that speaks spanish.

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I went in to a 7-11 with 2 of my freinds. It seems we've become quite smitten by a beer called Hacker-Pschor Weise. So the nearest distributor of pint bottles of the beer is this 7-11 near a cop station so its always filled with police cruisers getting coffee/doughnuts and its in a somewhat diverse neighborhood. And when I say diverse I don't mean it is somewhere on the spectrum of gentrified or shared between latinos and whites or blacks and whites. I mean there are many different languages spoken around the area, as well as people from all over the globe.

Anyway I got off subject. So we walk in to grab a buncha beers and I notice a guy behind us coming through the door. He got out of a white van and had a comcast hat on, so at first I assumed he was a cable guy or something. Then I noticed how obviously drunk he was and how he had a lady with him. He wasn't a cable guy just some dude getting some beers for him and his lady to continue drinking while driving.

Walking in to the store we pass by the owners of the 7-11 who are of middle eastern descent and speak with an accent that shows English is a second language. Going around the counter we pass by a young mother with a few kids. They speak spanish to eachother the siblings teasing and playing with one another, just bear cubs.

Walking through the turnstile in to the beer section I point out the vast reserves on display of the moment's favorite beer. Turning to consult with my 2 cohorts on how many beers we shall procure-comcast guy sez to someone around him "I'm sick of this Ishmael shit."

Looking me directly in the eye he asks "Know what I mean?".
Normally I ignore the drunk look straight through him and while looking straight through him say something to my freind behind me or say "excuse me" and closely examine the bottles on the other side of him.That day I was in a weird mood and plus I get tired of individuals shitting on certain groups of people.

So I said "What are you talking about?"

He said "You know America...This is America...speak the language."

I said "What America are you talking about? America is the whole of the western hemisphere, do you mean the United States of America?"

"oh getting technical" he says with a twinkle in his eye that I interpreted as foreboding. "I like that"

"Well its true" I said as I looked through him, focusing once again on my task of making him disappear.

He muttered to his ladyfreind then audibly "I was in the marines for some years."

Remembering my interpretation of his stare, I bit my tongue before I could ask him if he thought it was worth it.

I paid for my beer and exited the store. Looking to my left were 2 polish guys jabbering away in their native language.

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Sometimes it makes you feel good to be a smart ass....well maybe all the time. When I was doing door to door sales we went to this shop that had a sign on the cash register:
"You're In America, Speak English".

I said to her "shouldn't the sign say 'you're in England speak English'?"

The sheer stupidity of the sign had not dawned on her
"Real funny" she said with a 'shut yer smart ass up' tone of voice.
Not only is America the whole of the western hemisphere so there are more Spanish speakers than English, but English is not even from the United States, which is what her sign is assuming people interpret "america" as. Is that the mainstream? Am I just out of the mainstream? Or is this lady actually that stupid? Or was it the nationalism requiring faith thusly overwhelming reason.

This woman worshipped America, but didn't even know what it was.