Mmm... Xenophobia!

Horror of all horrors, Kennywood has been bought by a bunch of dirty Spaniards. Shame on the previous owners for selling out to foreign interests--as if we don't already have enough people who refuse to learn how to talk English good, now we're probably going to have to ride the "Venganza del Fantasma" instead of the Phantom's Revenge, and get burritos and sopapillas instead of burgers and waffle cones. The "You Must Be This Tall to Ride" signs will now probably be in centimeters, the "Guess Your Weight" thing will probably be in kilograms. And don't they know that after the terrorist bombings in Madrid the Spanish government is actually a puppet front for Osama?

... ????

OK, a bit of reality now. I read the news about Kennywood being sold with nothing more than mild interest and didn't think twice about it, until of course I made the mistake of looking through the Post Gazette public forum about it. Holy pathological xenophobia, batman. Here are some choice quotes:

One of the few simple things left, and now that is gone too. It is just so sad.

Ummm...you know it's still open, right?

So much for keeping America, America. Let's look at the bright side... At least it was not sold to the Chinese.

Ooohh...classy! Just spectacularly classy! And of course, what's xenophobia without a little conspiracy theory?

I believe that our government and big business are selling us out only for money in their hands now. They don't care where it can lead the country. IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY AND THEY ARE TAKING IT FROM US.

I would really like to know how many of these people knew jack shit about Kennywood's ownership before reading about the sale. I sure didn't. Well, actually I take that back--Pittsburgh is the kind of place where I wouldn't be surprised if most "true Pittsburghers" did know about it.

Not wanting to do a disservice to all residents of the area, there were a fair number of comments that were more thought out and decried the hate mongering and small-mindedness. But really, this situation perfectly illustrates why even though I love Pittsburgh, it often drives me downright nuts. The truth is that, at the risk of advocating a stereotype, most well-established Pittsburghers fear and hate change, anything that isn't like them and anything that isn't what they grew up with. Different automatically equals bad.

This attitude has significant impacts on the region. The good-old-boy political network is nauseatingly unshakable, even after it sent the city to the brink of bankruptcy. The city elects an immature and ethically questionable mayor because people refuse to vote for a Republican. The region could save tens millions of dollars by consolidating services between the city and county, or some of the 127 municipalities in this county alone, but every step on that road is a struggle and a fight. And yes, there is absolutely truth to the fact that it is hard for someone from outside Pittsburgh to establish social connections here--with one exception (significant though it may be) all of my closest friends are not originally from Pittsburgh.

But the really sad thing is that the fear and hate mongering here is by no means limited to Pittsburgh. Just today I got a forwarded email loaded with surprise and outrage at the fact that Barack Obama has a Muslim background and his middle name is Hussein. It very clearly implied that he is an agent for violent radical Muslim groups, trying to infiltrate America for the purpose of attacking it. Now, I have no idea who I'm going to vote for yet, but COME ON!! I'll reserve my outrage for the guy who wanted to quarantine everyone with AIDS, thanks.

At any rate, these two events on one day are just a sad reminder of the closed-minded hatred that pervades our world, driven by fear of the unknown and a stubborn refusal to learn and accept.

Hey, look on the bright side--maybe the Spanish will try to reinstitute some kind of Inquisition, and Kennywood can become the center of a new, truly God-fearing fundamentalist Christian nation. That's fine, just so long as they leave the yellow arrows up.