And Just To Give a Little Perspective...

...of exactly how far the bigotry shown in the post below can spread, here's a little story from Paul the Spud's neighborhood. I was so shocked when this happened, I had to call Shakespeare's Sister and tell her about it.

I was walking my dog after work in my Andersonville neighborhood. For those of you not familiar with Chicago, it's a far north side neighborhood; one of the bluest in a very blue city in a blue state. Extremely gay friendly (only the Boystown area is "more gay,"), very liberal, etc, etc. We also have a very high Latino population.

So, I'm crossing the street, and walking towards me is a Latino family; a mother, older daughter, and two very young children, one in a stroller. As we cross paths, a car passes us, going in the direction that I'm walking. The driver leans out of his window and sneers, "I see the illegal immigrants are all out today."

Yep.

There's no way he could have known if they were immigrants, or born in this country. There's no way he could have known if this family was here illegally, or if they were legal American citizens. They looked Mexican, and that was good enough for him. I figure he also felt pretty safe spewing this garbage at this family, as they didn't have any men walking with them that may have beaten his racist ass into the ground.

I should stress that this did not take place on one of the days when a large immigration rally was held in Chicago, which may have caused hightened tensions and emotions. (Not that heightened tensions and emotions would excuse this behavior.) It was just out of the blue. In a very blue neighborhood, in a very blue city, in a very blue state.

This shit is everywhere, and it's spreading.

(From my heart and from my hands, why don't people understand my cross-posts?)