Imagine being a 12 year old girl on a city bus and have people glaring at you simply because of the way you dress. Now, imagine turning all that around by simply wearing a Girl Scout sash. It’s actually a sad commentary on how we treat people in this country.
Sometimes when Asma Haidara, a 12-year-old Somali immigrant, wants to shop at Target or ride the Minneapolis light-rail system, she puts her Girl Scout sash over her everyday clothes, which usually include a long skirt worn over pants as well as a swirling head scarf.
She has discovered that the trademark green sash — with its American flag, troop number (3009) and colorful merit badges — reduces the number of glowering looks she draws from people otherwise bothered by her traditional Muslim dress.
“When you say you are a girl scout, they say, ‘Oh, my daughter is a girl scout, too,’ and then they don’t think of you as a person from another planet,” said Asma, a slight, serious girl with a bright smile. “They are more comfortable about sitting next to me on the train.” [...]
By teaching girls to roast hot dogs or fix a flat bicycle tire, Farheen Hakeem, one troop leader here, strives to help them escape the perception of many non-Muslims that they are different.
Scouting is a way of celebrating being American without being any less Muslim, Ms. Hakeem said.
Little girls and boys shouldn’t have to wear scout sash’s and badges to keep from being harassed. Most of the children are American citizens, or on their way to becoming citizens. And our First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state allows everyone to decide whether or not to follow a particular faith tradition — or none at all.
Are we ever going to be a nation that stops living in fear of difference and actually embraces it?
“It is kind of cool to say that you are a girl scout,” Asma said. “It is good to have something to associate yourself with other Americans. I don’t want people to think that I am a hermit, that I live in a cave, isolated and afraid of change. I like to be part of society. I like being able to say that I am a girl scout just like any other normal girl.”
Under the current climate I’m sure that is too much to ask. In the meantime, hats off to these young girls. Now, would someone please pass me a hot dog and some s’mores?
Barack Obama, appearing on Nightline last night, said the following:
“But they also, surprisingly enough, even in rural Iowa, recognize the opportunity to send a signal to the world that, you know, we are not as ingrown, as parochial as you may perceive. … ..” – Barack Obama
Is “ingrown” code for “inbred”? Is this what Obama thinks of rural Americans? His campaign was quick to ask for an expanded transcript to be released, and here is what’s posted by Taylor Marsh:
UPDATE II: For those of you not visiting the comments, I’m offering a fuller section, though I don’t think the context and reference helps at all. “Even in rural Iowa” speaks for itself, regardless of the words around it. It also doesn’t remove the reality of what would have happened had Clinton said something like this. Look what Matthews and others are making of Clinton’s CBS interview with Katie Couric. She doesn’t think about losing, so she’s automatically saying she’s inevitable? However, Obama’s campaign asked me to put it in an update on the post itself, which I’m happy to do. In the end, no matter what I say you’ll decide, which is how it should be.
MORAN: Do you think Americans are challenged by voting potentially for a presidential candidate who didn’t have an American boyhood?
OBAMA: Oh, well, I think that it is both a challenge and an opportunity. I think there’s no doubt that the fact that my name is Barack Obama and that my father was from Kenya and that I grew up in Hawaii that there’s that whole exotic aspect to me that people, I think, have to get past. But they also, surprisingly enough, even in rural Iowa, recognize the opportunity to send a signal to the world that, you know, we are not as ingrown, as parochial as you may perceive or as the Bush administration seems to have communicated, that we are, in fact, embracing the world, we are listening, we are concerned, we want to be engaged.
We want to be safe. We want to be treated fairly. We want to make sure that, whether it’s on trade relations or dealing with terrorism, that our national interests are dealt with. But we also recognize that we’re part of the world community. And I think it was interesting, just here in Dunlap, you notice that some of the biggest applause was when I talked about wanting America to be respected again in the world. People understand this in a very significant way.
UPDATE: He’s on a roll. This out of New Hampshire, via email, where Mr. Obama was talking foreign policy today:
“One of the great pleasures of running for president is to go to some tiny town in Iowa and you’ve got some guy in overalls and a seahat to say what do you think about the situation in Burma, and you’re thinking that he’s going to ask you about corn, and he asks you about Burma.” – Barack Obama
Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. Small children and puppies love you.
You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns. Which would make you an asset to the current administration if it only had a brain.
You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual … but mostly personal). You can never find matching socks, but your dogs love you anyway. You are destine to win a Nobel prize.
Imagine being a 12 year old girl on a city bus and have people glaring at you simply because of the way you dress. Now, imagine turning all that around by simply wearing a Girl Scout sash. It’s actually a sad commentary on how we treat people in this country.
