We stayed in a hotel. In the morning, I ate breakfast near a group of people dressed in Western-style finery-- sharp hats and jackets, nice belts and boots. Their hair and make-up were impeccable. Overall, the group exuded a powerful, professional air.
Something about being around people in cowboy hats is a jarring experience. It feels like a huge statement, like they're asserting themselves in an aggressive way.
I don't know why this should be...I think this is my own personal bias. The people themselves are not being aggressive, it's just something about the style that gets to me. Probably the way it gets to some people when they see a guy in a skirt, or someone wearing goth or punk clothing. Or two people of the same sex, kissing. None of the previous things bother me, just cowboy hats. It puts me on alert, like when there are soldiers or police present.
So many people are different from each other.
The shooting in Orlando, which happened while we were away on this trip, made me think about bias against groups. It's a helpless feeling to see another shooting, especially one that's a result of bias against a particular group of people.
When they interviewed people who knew the shooter, one man was a former coworker, who said he'd always thought this guy could've been cable of such an act.
There are people among us who need help. They're angry, twisted and sad. Most people, I would wager, know someone like this-- an angry, blameful, righteous person who seems like they could snap one day.
These people seem incredibly hard to change. They're not very fun to be around. They're like a bowling ball that's fallen in the gutter and headed down a bad path. How do you help them change? How do you include someone who feels another's presence as an assault, an encroachment on their right to happiness? I don't know. But I don't think further exclusion is the answer to the country's problem.
I just see the faces after the shootings, the people who are trying to make sense of it, and somehow do good in the aftermath.
