As featured on LinkedIn:
I was in 6th grade when the Iranian Hostage Crisis unfolded. It didn’t take much to notice from our adults that tensions were high. (Didn’t help to be stuck in the middle of the Cold War as well, but that’s another post for another time.)
Coming back into the classroom, post-lunch/recess before our teacher returned to the room, there was a decent amount of noise as several of my male classmates had taken the “I” encyclopedia book out, turned it to Iran, laid it on a spare desk, and were taking turns punching the Iranian flag as hard as possible, followed by raucous laughter of all involved. I didn’t take part; merely watched from my seat as the same pattern repeated: punch, ouch, shaking the hand to alleviate the pain with a smile and laughter, get back in line to do it again.
I asked one of the guys afterwards, “What was the point of all that?” His answer, and all the other participants, ended up the same: “It felt good.” I can understand stress relief, but lashing out – even in a supposedly physical/macho bit of comic relief – says that you would rather react than understand.
I know (or I’d like to think that I knew) them well enough that they would not do something like vandalism or wilful destruction just because a person has an accent or comes from another part of the world. As pictured, there are those who cannot distinguish (nor voluntarily choose to understand) the differences between governments and their decisions and the people of that government.
Any time this behavior is noted locally – sad and idiotic as it is – it is an opportunity to be called out, by schools, by places of worship, by local media in their editorial sections, loudly and often. Granted, the people who engage in maximum boneheadedness like this are probably not watching the newscasts.
But others are.
Speaking out on the news might give someone else the courage to speak up when fear and ignorance are on the rise, when “it felt good” is no longer an acceptable excuse.
Epilogue: I was asked by the guy I queried as to why I didn’t take part in their fun, why “I was on Iran’s side”. I told him I wasn’t “on their side”. I just saw no point to their games and decided not to participate as it solved nothing. Wasn’t there any better action they could think of? All I got back was a roll of the eyes and a shrug. #SameAsItEverWas
Meteorologist Austen Onek 