Some People are Very Different from You and I
Having lived in a number of different places in the United States, and having worked in a variety of jobs, I think I can safely say that I've been around. At least a bit more than some other people have. It has been my sincere pleasure to meet and get to know some children and adults on the Navajo Reservation. I worked as a teacher there for a few years. Likewise, I've come to know students and just average folks of some other ethnic backgrounds, such as African American kids whom I taught in two traditionally, predominately African American universities in the American South. Working part time in a local video store, I've probably met people who range from the very poor to the very privileged: almost anyone can rent videotapes these days.
So, I think it comes as a rare surprise, and on occasion a more unpleasant shock, when we meet a person who stands out far beyond most others in their just plain awfulness. For example, once or twice a week, a customer will come to the video store and in a few seconds his odor will overtake all others, as well as permeate through solid objects. In other words, this person should have taken a bath weeks ago. Of course, there are other ways in which townspeople can stand out significantly above, or below, most others. Grocery store customers, or any retail customers for that matter, can try to toss around their supposed influence, presence, and prestige, and by doing so, I think, hope to show everyone that they are better. On average, people tend to follow local customs for most of the time, treating others with common civility and courtesy. Still, there are some that you can get to know who always want to look "better". I imagine that someday, they will get their just rewards as will we all.
Being only an amateur level sociologist, I realize that here I'm presenting comments rather than carefully researched conclusions. However, you may agree with me at least in part with what I am writing down. Directed by Steven Spielberg a few years ago, "Schindler's List" is to me, a continually fascinating, horrifying, and extremely sobering account of the Holocaust of World War II. Now and then, i find it helpful to watch again films like that to observe humanity and depictions of humanity and in so doing to gauge my own sanity against the rest of the world. Certainly, it's just a story but stories usually come from
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