Learn to spell

Wyoming is so amazingly beautiful – if only the white folks there could catch up! It has always astounded me, the wondrous physical beauty of this country juxtaposed with the mean ugliness of many of the white folks that live out here. It’s so hard for me to understand how you can live surrounded by such glorious splendor and then turn into such hateful, greedy people. I guess when you believe this beauty belongs to you and you alone, that you alone deserve it, you then feel entitled to claim it for yourself. It is very sad.

I’m at yet another gas station, returning from the bathroom. As I walk out the door, an older large white women heaves loud, hateful angry words in my direction. I can tell she’s said it to several folks before her eyes light on me.

She knows I’m the one! She growls, casting dispersions: “She can’t spell; she needs to go back to school to learn to spell.”

I ask her to please explain what in the world she means? She totally ignores me, saddles up, reiterating her accusation to a young white straight couple that are holding hands, standing there reading my truck.

He responds: “Oh I think she spelled everything exactly the way she wanted to.”

She pivots sharply, ignoring us as we triumphantly give each other a broad smile and the peace sign.

“Go back to school,” she hisses, “and learn to spell.”

“Tell you what,”  I say,  “When bush goes back to church and learns what it means to be a christian, I’ll go back to school and learn how to spell.”

She slides herself into her brand new american sedan, slams the door, and emphatically pushes the automatic locks.

Okay.

Thinking about her later, I wish I would have asked her exactly what was making her so very angry – maybe that would have led to more fruitful dialogue.