Our cabbie from Jerusalem

When we left New Orleans, on our way to the airport, we got into a cab driven by a Palestinian who told us he came from Jerusalem and had worked in America for some 17 years. When we told him we were from Utah, he started asking about Mormonism and polygamy, a not-so-unusual question from folks who've never set foot in Utah and solely rely on media clichés. We proceeded to explain that only a minority of Mormons were indeed polygamists, and that the majority of male faithfuls seemed happy with just one wife. Our cabbie then started to rant about the fact that if polygamy laws weren't enforced for Mormons, they sure would be for Muslims like him, who would likely be discriminated by the American legal system. We asked him if he had several wives, but he said that since his family had been left behind in Jerusalem, he had to take several mistresses in America to provide him carnal comfort (what a great guy!)

He further kept on telling us that he didn't like Americans, found them far too venal and too permissive, and that he would never allow his three children (all teenagers and young adults) to live in such a depraved country. He particularly had a big issue with being able to physically discipline children as he saw fit, without being singled out as a child abuser. Quite obviously, our man was loaded with resentment about the United States and yet – by his own admission – could not tell us that he would return to Palestine for his retirement or to any other place in the world for that matter (we had asked him that specific question.) In the few short minutes we rode in his cab, this man managed to fully expose the complex case of contradiction he was. I have observed similar behaviors on a number of occasions with foreign-born U.S. Residents.

These individuals seem torn between their home culture and the comfort and convenience they extract out of their host country, yet they absolutely need to bite the hand that feeds them. Beyond finding this behavior as much appalling as hypocritical, I have a difficult time explaining why this is so and why some people need to vehemently attack and criticize the country that gives them the opportunity to truly thrive and yet give them total permission to freely voice their dissenting opinion. All this long anecdote to say that anger that's not vented almost always leads to irrational views and attitudes.