Re: Weekend

• From: starbug_56
• Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:54:05 -0700
• Message-ID: <000TQ59LD.000NSLREJ.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

I'm going to try to get some real sleep for the
first time in four days. I'm on wasp duty only one day
this weekend instead of both. I don't mind it, though.
Bugs are always a mood elevator for me!

This
evening, Rick and I went out with our friend Joyce to a
Middle Eastern restaurant. She knows the Syrian Muslim
family that runs the place, and wanted to let the people
who worked there know that we're willing to help head
off prejudice before it starts. Our concerns that
their livelihood would suffer unfairly proved
unfounded. Just about all of progressive Kalamazoo seemed to
be there! (It's an especially popular place among
vegetarians, since they serve excellent veggie entrees.) One
of the waiters was obviously touched by Joyce's
concern, and told her how terrible the whole family felt
about Tuesday's violence and how grateful he was for
her offer of a supportive ear. The mood there was one
of solidarity and friendship, not of fear or
distrust. A Middle Eastern engineering student who had
served alongside me on Western's Graduate Student
Advisory Committee grinned from ear to ear when he saw me,
and rushed up to shake my hand. 

Rick, Joyce,
and I quietly raised our coffee and tea cups to toast
the life of Rick's friend Paul Ambrose, who would
have been relieved to see people of all ethnicities
getting together and going on with their lives.


While I have serious concerns about the short run, I'm
feeling more optimistic about the long run than I have in
quite a while. That alone will make my weekend a lot
easier.

Julie