by Paul Orlando
With the election on Tuesday, I expect readers will be more distracted than normal so this is a short post. Today I wanted to tell you about how I caught up with a friend of mine last week.
That is, I recently had lunch with a good friend of mine who told me he’s a Trump supporter. At the start of our lunch he even showed me the Facebook post where he publicly stated he was voting for Trump (he didn’t last time).
But you’re probably curious about that lunch. Simple, but more than delicious. Pasta with wild boar ragu. Excellent cheeses. Perfect wines to go with the meal.
Also, a very enjoyable conversation about books and history. I imagine that many of you would have enjoyed it too. But maybe not.
To trigger craziness in others all I needed to mention was the word Trump.
Here are some of the shorter responses people (also friends) gave in response.
“Did you barf during or after the meal?” Funny, but didn’t I say the lunch was delicious?
“Ewwww….” What, the lunch or the person?
“I hope you wore a mask.” While eating?
The reactions of those otherwise thoughtful people troubled me. No one asked anything about my friend, his decision, or who he was. They already knew everything they needed to know. I’m sure they would be surprised to know that he’s an immigrant, non-white, and a PhD.
The single dimension of my critical friends’ reactions bothered me because I know they’ve never had such a lunch.
It’s natural for people to have different opinions. I believe we all want an election outcome process that is fair, perceived as fair, and with conclusive results. Then hopefully we can learn that the divisions were never so wide and even how public opinion has been steered in new directions.
Regardless of election outcome, may I recommend that you at least have a friend with different views than yours?