RantWoman is observing Ramadan, culture wars about the "Ground Zero mosque," and the circumstances of her daily life in the sort of seething stew that only RantWoman can cook up. Let us begin with daily life.
For instance, RantWoman currently has a number of Muslim neighbors in the building where she lives. RantWoman was asking annoying questions of staff about why our building picnic got scheduled smack in the middle of Ramadan when many neighbors will not be able to participate. RantWoman of little faith was delighted to realize that not only did some of them participate, one helped with shopping and several brought things from their homelands to talk about during the international festival. Silly presumptious RantWoman even to think she had a handle on the problem.
One of the bus grumblers in RantWoman's life has, um, rather vehement things to say about Muslim men, in particular two variants conected with public transit. Sometimes RantWoman and this bus grumbler will notice a clump of people including man, woman in some form of Islamic dress, and several children. In contrast to this Bus Grumbler's expectation that the man should stand and let the woman sit, it frequently is the case that the man sits with the woman and children standing around him. RantWoman notices this and has not felt led to comment. This is one of many topics RantWoman just listens to Bus Grumbler about, preferably in private. RantWoman gives this Bus Grumbler credit for bravely taking a multicultural plunge late in life, and RantWoman would not mind smoother dialogue as a result.
This Bus Grumbler has even more piquant opinions about the Muslim men who drive the paratransit this person sometimes uses. Bus Grumbler's complaints when phrased in behavioral terms are entirely appropriate: drives around for 25 minutes getting lost and making passengers late before calling in to ask for direction, being rude verbally, being inconsiderate and impatient when picking people or droppping them off. RantWoman's call to dialogue is to talk about the behaviors, not the ethnicity or faith references. RantWoman supposes that wearing another of her hats, RantWoman is going to have to speak more of cultural issues in another context as well.
Speaking of transportation, RantWoman's life involves one more opportunity for radical dialogue related to taxi drivers, very often immigrants and very often from Muslim countries, and seeing eye dogs. RantWoman actually is glad to get around with only AMbassador Thwack, but RantWoman knows many stories in Seattle of blind people having trouble with cab drivers because of seeing eye dogs. RantWoman knows that the Taxi cab commission conducts periodic intercultural training about this. RantWoman is aware of big culture issues, and RantWoman still has to be present in a lot of conversations about the topic.
Apparently RantWoman is not alone. The item below from the Washington Post illustrates the problem in our nation's capital. It has been a long time since RantWoman has taken any cabs in our nation's capital, but RantWoman does not expect the ethnic mix of cab drivers there has changed much and therefore RantWoman imagines there just might be the same cultural issues going on.
In study,half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind people with guide dogs The below article appears in today’s Washington Post. ACB is proud to have provided all of the testers for this study and looks forward to continuing our work with the Equal Rights Center. Eric http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090102344.htmlBy Henri E. CauvinWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 1, 2010; 10:04 AM In a study by a civil rights watchdog group, taxi drivers in the District often drove past blind people who were trying to hail a cab while accompanied by guide dogs. This StoryIn study, half of D.C. cab drivers pass by blind people with guide dogsShedding light on sidewalk safetyThe Equal Rights Center, in a report released Wednesday morning, said it conducted 30 tests earlier this year and that in half of the tests, drivers passed a man or woman with a guide dog to pick up a person who did not have a guide dog. In three of the cases where the taxi did stop for the blind person, the driver attempted to impose a surcharge for transporting the dog, the Equal Rights Center said. Under local and federal law, businesses, including taxis, must make reasonable accommodations to blind people and their service dogs and may not impose surcharges for transporting a service dog. But blind people in the District have complained for years that some taxi drivers flout the law. Prompted by such concerns, the Equal Rights Center, which is part of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, undertook an investigation, assisted by the law firm Hogan Lovells. In each of the 30 tests, which were conducted between March and May, the Equal Rights Centers placed a blind person with a guide dog and a sighted person on a high-traffic thoroughfare in the city. The blind person was placed about 100 feet closer to oncoming traffic so that he or she would be the first prospective passenger a taxi would encounter. With a video camera rolling, the Equal Rights Center recorded 15 taxis bypassing the blind passenger for the sighted person standing farther away. Video clips of some of the encounters can be seen here. In its report, the Equal Rights Center said its findings made clear that more needs to be done to ensure that the rights of blind people are protected. Taxi drivers in the District and elsewhere have long faced scrutiny for passing up prospective black passengers, and several years ago, the D.C. police conducted sting operations intended to deter discrimination by taxi drivers. The Equal Rights Center said that the police, the D.C. Taxi Commission and the D.C. Office of Human Rights need to adopt a more aggressive approach to addressing taxi-driver bias against the blind, stepping up both education and enforcement. "The law is in place," said Ashley N. White, outreach manager for the Equal Rights Center, "but no one is really enforcing it."
Compared to all the dialogue in RantWoman's daily life, checking in on recommendations by FCNL is EASY.
We Stand with American Muslims
Between now and the September 11 anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, there will probably be another outpouring of bigotry and misplaced anger at the proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in downtown New York City.
Our country needs this cultural center and the public discussion that it is generating. The proposal for this Islamic cultural center can be transformed from an ugly controversy into perhaps the most important public opportunity in this decade to celebrate and exercise the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.
Write to your senators today to ask them to speak out publically in favor of the Islamic Cultural Center in Manhattan.
Take action now - use the Friends Committee on National Legislation's website. http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/2/?a=16364531&i=82815342&c=
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