On my flight today to Minneapolis I had the pleasure of sitting next to a reporter from NPR. He generally covers long term reports (30 minute documentaries) and has a series coming out on the environment. He *didn"t* have a card. Imagine having 3 hours to talk to a liberal leftist! After my post yesterday on the Somalis, we had a long discussion about them.He lives in a very mixed neighborhood with them and has been involved in their integration into the community. He is friends with them. He tried to convince me that the boys going over to Somalia are acting out their national pride as the Hmong community had a similar issue with some of their members wanting to go over to Laos to start a revolution. He had a hard time even thinking that it was religiously motivated. He felt that there are so many gangs in his area, that the Somali parents encouraged their sons to go to the mosque as it was a safe place to be. He admitted to me that he attended this mosque and heard their Imam preach in Arabic, Somali and English. I asked him if it was the same sermon in all three languages and he couldn't say. I reminded him that this was a common tactic, perfected by Arafat to say one thing in Arabic and quite another to the Western world in English. He quickly changed the subject. I also asked him if didn't he think that the Somali parents knew what was being preached and approved of it themselves? He hadn't considered this tacit approval but agreed it was possible.
We talked about health care too. He wants free universal healthcare for everyone. Who is going to pay for that? Doctors need to be paid. I told him I like my current coverage and don't want to change. I don't want the government telling me what to do, I like to have a choice. I asked him to come back and talk to me when he is 65 and needs a knee replacement and the govt tells him no, he is too old.I knew about a survey taken that breaks down the number of uninsured Americans into several categories that show what the real number of eligible candidates for subsidized health care is and offered to email him the results. My new reporter friend has my email address and I will wait to see if he contacts me. In the meantime, here is that information:
http://keithhennessey.com/2009/04/09/how-many-uninsured-people-need-additional-help-from-taxpayers/
I also gave him my .02 cents on Israel, knowing that he was a captive audience and a member of National Palestinian Radio. Why not!
After that we stayed fairly neutral talking about movies, literature and generalities. I don"t know if I made any headway. It was an interesting encounter! I wonder who I will meet on Tuesday on the way back to Phoenix?
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