I enjoyed the good fortune of spending a short time in Israel in the late nineties. A few days there gave me pause to consider a wider world view and the part of the United States in other countries.
As a tourist I spoke with Arab shopkeepers and business men who I imagined to be typical representatives of their peoples. They struck me as rational, reasonable, and conservative.
They politely told me how they feel, trying to raise their children to be good community citizens, God fearing, and family oriented, only to see their children imitating what they think life in the United States is. Wearing NFL and NBA jackets and jerseys, wearing Levi’s, Nike’s, showing disrespect for adults, and using speech that any parent would not want to hear from the mouths of their children.
I listened to these men from their different shops, and I could not understand what they were so concerned about. What was so terrible, about western values? I was there as a western tourist and I believed my value system on par with almost anyone. I thought they were overreacting to change.
Traveling by car on a highway close to the Jordan river which separates the Nations of Israel and Jordan, we were listening to local radio. We had recently drove up on some Bedouin peoples. A few of us sat on a man’s camel and had our pictures taken. Typical tourist stuff.
The radio station we were listening to was from somewhere in Jordan. The music coming out of the speaker sounded to me like Arabic, or some form of Arabic. The song completed and the DJ spoke for a few seconds in what I presumed to be Arabic.
I thought I heard the english words Motherf****ng Compton. I thought it must be a trick as the DJ was speaking in Arabic I thought, but it did sound like Motherf****ng Compton. there was a slight pause and a new song started.
I heard Motherf****ng Compton again, this time as part of an adult rap song made up of words and thoughts that should not be written, and phrases that should not be printed. I could not believe riding in a car between the nations of Israel and Jordan, I would hear something that would never make it on american radio in anywhere America.
Someone in the front seat changed the radio station, and I knew without a doubt what those Father’s of children had so politely and tastefully tried to convey to me about what was happening to their children, culture and country.
I wonder every 9/11 anniversary, if I were one of these men I spoke with, what would I feel, and what would I think about America and Americans?
