I got into a bit of an argument with a co-worker today in front of the kids. We were mentoring a group of students through a discussion of politics, and one of my students was telling my co-worker (a man who is sexist, prejudiced, and afraid of some of the kids) that America was evil. My co-worker - let us call him Moron - was getting extremely worked up by this.
"That's not true!" he exclaimed. "America has done some really great things. They have provided all sorts of help to people across the world!" This was said with extreme condescension, as if these kids were ten or eleven years younger than they are. This alone would have been enough to piss me off, but his pro-American, PC attitude made my tongue lash out in defense of integrity. And so the words jumbled together and outwards before I was able to retract them.
"Too bad they aren't able to take care of their own people. *cough* Hurricane Katrina," I retorted.
I watched as his face first went blank, and then began to turn purple in fury. I was able to save face, though, and not propagate Anti-American sentiments to my students by immediately clarifying, "But in this instance, too, it was the Government who acted badly, not the people. So you can dislike the American Government and the things it does without hating the American people."
And with that, the onslaught of a thousand angry phone calls was averted.
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