A Diner Bigot

Posted on January 10, 2003 in California Watch Encounters Pontiff Watch

After Joanie, the waitress who works everywhere along El Toro Road, seated us in our booth, I could not help but overhear a sweat-shirted elderly woman from Leisure World going on about the Third World to a bloated old man who just ate his pancakes. She hated how they blamed us for all their problems, how this “Fox fellow” in Mexico kept telling us that we needed to do something about their unemployment. “They’ve got oil, they’ve got mineral resources,” she ranted, “and their country is a mess. Whose fault is that?”

“You know the Pope?” she went on. “This Pope thinks we should forgive all the loans we made to the third world. Like we’re to blame for their being poor and backward. Why doesn’t he use what the Catholics have to help? Why doesn’t he sell one of his rings?”

I raised my voice slightly as I said to Lynn “Don’t you just love hatred?”

My comment registered. Her voice dropped as she realized that she’d just paid the price for free speech which is criticism. She adjourned her public remarks and convened a conservative conventicle in a much lower voice.