People are different. Sorry we are.
Exactly!
In my opinion, it's all tribal.
That could be because my people are tribal, but the word fits.
What follows isn't directed at anyone here. Come back to that sentence, and read it again if you forget it.
In my opinion, man invented war within thirty seconds of discovering that there was more than one tribe, but I digress.
Tribes are drawn along all kinds of lines.
Lines of race, religion, language, color, height, and geographical location, to name a few obvious ones.
There are tribes that burn their women to death, right now, in 2003. There are tribes that won't admit you unless you've comitted a felony, in the presence of a tribal member. There are tribes that will welcome anyone, at any hour, and there are tribes who say they welcome anyone, but some money will make you ever-so-slightly more welcome. There are tribes who chant, drum, sing, dance, and there are tribes who sit silently for a lot longer than I can.
The problem is that there is no longer room for space between the tribes, and that some tribes are bigger and stronger than other tribes. The tribes must live together.
There are many, many tribes that don't like each other, some for good reason, some for recent reasons, and some for reasons that have been lost to history.
The tribes in East L.A., as far as I can tell, don't like anyone.
There are some tribes (wife beaters come readily to mind) that if you are a member, I already don't like you, and never will. There are other tribes (cops, most of them, anyway, are the first examples I can think of) that if you belong, we're probably going to get along.
I don't believe it's possible for you to suddenly, one day, decide that you've been wrong all your life, and the enemy tribe really isn't the enemy, after all. Once you've tasted the poison, and especially once you've seen the blood of your tribal enemy, you will never be the same, and there is no going back.
In the United States, in 2003, what those of us who belong to some of the smaller tribes will have, what we need to live closely with other tribes, what we
DEMAND, is that you
ACT as if we are not the enemy.
Control yourself. Live in your poison, if you must, but keep it out of your voice.
Choose your words as if we were members of your tribe.
Teach it to your children, if you insist, and poison them, also, but in the same lesson teach them that if they reveal their twisted truth to us, there will no longer be peace between the tribes. Teach them what it will cost all of us, and show them the real price. Be ready for the day that they discover their own truth, and be prepared for their rejection.
Act as if we are not the enemy, in all things, because everything depends on it.
If not respect, then manners.
As long as you act as if we are not enemies, as long as your act is convincing and complete, it will be possible for our tribes to live in peace together. I am aware that I can't cure you, and I probably wouldn't if I could. You certainly can't cure me.
If you can choke your poison down and swallow it, I can choke mine down, if you can make your manners sound genuine, I can do the same with mine.
The only alternative is war between the tribes.
