"What are you?" asked a passenger.
"You must ask the right question for the answer you
seek" Johnie replied.
"What nationality are you?" The passenger
rephrased his question.
"I have no boundaries, no borders; I
am but one resident of earth; connected to all living beings on this planet;
for I exist as they do. I am connected with you and the evidence is that you
sit here with me here; we have been united for some reason however random it
may appear." Johnie answered the question.
Johnie drives a hybrid Taxi cab in Bellingham,
Washington. He is a patient, kind, gentle, friendly man who puts up with
a ton of craziness on a daily basis but still has an amazingly positive outlook
on life.
Johnie continues when the man appears confused.
He tells the man that he is Hawaiian and when the passenger doesn't seem
satisfied with that answer, he tells him that he is also Scotch Irish on his
mother’s side. Still the man was not happy with the answers he was receiving.
Unfortunately, many people have this or a similar reaction
to Johnie. He has brown skin; some people say he looks middle eastern, some
believe that he is Mexican or Asian. I don’t think it should matter what color
his skin is or where he came from because those things don’t define who he is.
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Everyone's Favorite Vacation Spot...
Hawaii |
"You ask me a question to set your own curiosity at
ease. I answer your question honestly and tell you I am Hawaiian and you get
upset. I tell you I am Scotch Irish on my mother's side and still you are not
satisfied. Why must people classify me? Why not see me as what I am, just a
peaceful, caring and kind human being." Johnie asks the passenger to which
he receives no response.
Why must we label each other? Why put others into categories
and form opinions without taking the time to learn who that person is on the
inside? Why not be observant, ask meaningful questions, and have a decent
chance to gauge who that person really is, based on your interactions?
Can’t we all just open our eyes and see the person in front of us for who
they really are?
Before you stamp someone with your label and judge them by it, think about
how you have been judged unfairly and inaccurately. As the old saying goes,
don't judge a book by its cover. When will we learn that what goes around comes
around? Can’t we just embrace individuality and live peacefully and blissfully
side by side?
If everyone could be measured based on a set criteria then
sorted into say 6 or 10 different classifications, then everyone would be the
same 6 or 10 people. The world would be nothing but a whole bunch of sheep
following each other around.
I don't know about you but I refuse to conform to
guidelines, criteria or categories. I am me and there is no one else like me!**
Johnie is a very unique person as well, he is like no other that I have come
across and it is unfair that he is often judged or worse because of his skin
color. Smart people know better than to try to catalog a human being based on
surface assumptions…
**(Many people choose to live their lives as sheep
because it's easier to do what everyone else is doing and think what you are told to think, than it
is to make your own decisions and think your own thoughts. More on the sheep
subject in a later post.)
I would have hoped that we as humans would have
learned from our past but we have not and therefore it will repeat itself. How
many times in history has a certain "kind" of people been mistreated
or killed off? Chaos and destruction of valuable human life simply because the
victims were different and fell into an unfavorable minority. People fear what
they do not understand and if they don't take the time to understand
"different" people then that fear breeds hate and that hate turns to
violence, (violence doesn't always occur when hate is present but most of the
time it does).
Think of the many instances of genocide; the Armenians
massacred by the Ottoman government (during the First World War), the Holocaust
when Jews were rounded up and massacred by the Nazis, during the Second World
War and more recently the Rwandan Genocide (during the Rwandan Civil War).
There are more but you get my point. All of these examples of acts designed to
dehumanize a particular ethnic, racial or religious group. I could go on for
days about the injustices that the world has seen all because of human
classification.
Obviously one passenger attempting to classify and label
Johnie is minuscule in comparison with Genocide but it all starts small. Starts
with placing labels on people and passing judgment.
We each have the power to make a small difference by
existing peacefully. When you come across someone you do not know and maybe do
not understand, look for the things you may have in common instead of looking
for the differences. Learn to understand them by finding common ground.
Don’t assume the worst but give them the benefit of the doubt.
So which is it? Don't judge a book by its cover? Or, your
first impression is solely based on the presentation and appearance? I already
have my answer, and it's actually quite easy to know others opinion within a
matter of seconds.
Special thanks to Johnie Pai for this story and for being
awesome!!
There is the line (don’t pretend you don’t know where the line is), do not cross it. Most people understand these boundaries and they respect them. They also expect others to do the same in regards to their personal space.
Johnie continues when the man appears confused.
He tells the man that he is Hawaiian and when the passenger doesn't seem
satisfied with that answer, he tells him that he is also Scotch Irish on his
mother’s side. Still the man was not happy with the answers he was receiving.
