Balkan Fighting

While recently attending a 40-year high school reunion in Chicago, a bunch of us went along to a bowling tournament. Sitting around the cocktail lounge after the matches, the fighting in the Balkans came up. Having been long gone from the old neighborhoods, I just listened.

An Afro-American observed how the fighting “sure didn’t make white people look very good.” A German-American countered with, “but those are East Europeans.” At that, a Lithuanian-American interjected, “Those are Slavs.” A Polish-American objected and said, “All Slavic people weren’t like that, just those Balkan Slavs.” A Croatian-American then insisted that not all Balkan people were like that, “Just the Serbs.” At that, a Serbian-American insisted that the fault was with the Muslims in Bosnia. At that, all the Christians nodded their head in agreement, “Ah, yes, the Muslims.”

God, I love this country.

CHUCK JORGENSEN

Los Angeles