Jumping To Conclusions
I had an experience this evening that reminded me that, sometimes, I am too quick to judge a situation.
My son returned, tonight, from a two-week trip to Mexico. His best friend is Jaime. They traveled to the city of Leon to stay with Jaime's relatives. I discovered that it was quite an adventure. As soon as they arrived in Mexico, they loaded their luggage in the car and went to KFC to eat. It seems to me if you are going to Old Mexico, you would want to eat somewhere else! Anyhow, as they were inside the restaurant, the car was vandalized. My son's suitcase was stolen. It contained his Nintiendo DS, PSP Portable, all kinds of games for these systems, and $300 cash. What a way to start a vacation trip! When Jaime's relatives discovered what happened, they proceeded to take up a collection, and gave $200 to my son. And these are not rich people. Isn't that amazing?
Jaime's mom followed us to the airport in her car. On the way back we pulled into a fast-food restaurant to feed these starving teenagers. Their car was followed into the parking lot by two police cars, lights flashing. As we watched from a distance, the officers spent about thirty minutes doing whatever police officers do when they pull over Hispanic drivers. The longer I stood there and watched, the angrier I became. “Why didn't they pull me over...perhaps because of my skin color?” I started counting the number of cars that also crossed the double-solid line to turn into the restaurant. I counted 14. “Why didn't they give those drivers a ticket?” I watched the officer, and he appeared so cocky, and I developed an increasing dislike for him. I was deciding to never spend another penny in this two-bit town. And then I saw the officer ask the lady to get out of her car, and then have her to sign a paper. A ticket, perhaps several. I was seriously considering walking over to give him a piece of my mind, but of course cowardice prevented such. But when he finally drove away, I made sure to glare at him.
I walked over to Jaime's mom to see what had happened. Her car had a Texas license plate on the front, but a Georgia plate on the back. He explained to her that this was improper, told her to remove it as soon as possible, and gave her a warning ticket. That's all! He could have done a whole lot more. He was simply doing his job.
Once again I have been reminded of an important matter of human relationships. Be very, very careful about passing judgment...on cops, people of color....on anyone or any situation.
