Defended...on the bus?!

For the official record, I still don't much care for the city. But having discovered the local-and-organic food scene here, it's become a less unhappy situation. And, if my Indy Turkish Muslim friends are reading, you know it's not you : )

Anyway, I thought I should offer a touch of balance to my bleak assessment of the city and how it is treating me. To be fair.

A few weeks ago, I was riding the bus toward downtown making my way (eventually) home for the evening; it was about 5:30pm so the bus was completely full. One guy seated at the front of the bus on the 'sideways' seats, a couple of rows in front of me, was generally and loudly talking trash. When he caught sight of me, I could just see his eyes light up in recognition of the perfect target. And predictably, he began by rhetorically asking me if I'm from Iraq and continuing with comments involving suicide bombers and the like. There's no dialoguing with someone who wants only to spew ignorance and hate, so I just glared at the back of the seat in front of me, alert to the (small) possibility that he or someone else - as pretty much the entire bus was now staring at me - might choose to take things beyond talk.

This lasted a minute or less. A woman sitting near him, who looked like she could, well, break him in half, and wouldn't really mind doing so if this continued, told him to SHUT. UP.

And he did. Completely.