“Waat an arrogant guy, dat Obbama dude, hah?” shouted my neighbor Manny, as soon as I had turned my head away from him after returning his greeting of “Hi, howyu doin” with the usual “fine”--and the obligatory “Howbout yurself?” pitchback. Normally that would have been the end of our conversation of casual encounter when I would be preparing to mow my lawn. But on that fine day in April, Manny seemed to be in a mood to be the talkative neighbor. If it were any other subject, I would have made some agreeable noises and continued with my work. But, this remark about Obama piqued my curiosity, particularly because it was from Manny who had not talked politics with me until then. Even though the 2008 election season was not in full swing, this presidential election year had become so unusual--with a black and a woman competing fiercely, at that time, even if in only one party--that even Manny must have become active, I thought.
Good; more people taking interest in candidates is always good. But, Manny's take on Obama went against my grain. So I challenged him, “What did Obama do?”
“Havn't yu herd?... Geez….it's all ov'r dha noos.” Manny was nodding his head in disbelief of my ignorance as he walked over to me.
I had to stop in the middle of priming my lawn mower--why waste precious (and getting more precious by the minute!) gasoline; better wait till Manny goes back to his house.
“He said yest'rday dat wee workin folks are bittrr an' wee clin' ta owr gunns "n rileejjin. Watan…watchthey callit… I beleeve dha wurd is "elleettiz', ha?... yu know wat I meen?”
I was thinking hard how best to handle Manny and his outburst. Of course I had seen the news--and read a lot about it in the papers and had seen the reactions in the blogs. Hence I had already formulated my own position before I had stepped out of the house. But all my arguments were appropriate for my usual friends--all shamelessly well educated people. I just did not know how exactly to engage Manny--how to dumb down my analysis. But that is a skill that is becoming extremely crucial nowadays. So I better practice, I thought to myself.
Manny is the typical blue-collar worker. I have seen him hopping in his beaten pick-up truck fairly early in the morning and driving off real fast even on the bending roads of our children-filled neighborhood. Sometimes I have seen him holding a “Slow!” sign at road-work sites. Other times, I have seen him mowing lawns or digging holes near other people's houses. I envy him because he must be doing better than us lowly engineers since he has a house in this neighborhood where many of my colleagues live--and we always complain about the high property taxes, while he is always getting his house renovated.
“What do you mean by "elitist"?” I asked Manny when he came close to me.
“Yu know, dhem ejucated peepl, dhem who look down uppon us workin' folks,” said Manny.
“No, I don't know. Who are all those?”
“Geez, yu wan me to poin out evry one of dem?”
“You mean the Democrats?”
“Nah, nah. I'm not blamin all Dems…er, demacratz. I ment jus some ejucate show-off talkers. Dhey annoy me. Gawd, I'm pissed off at dhem kind.”
“Can you tell me who make you annoyed by their talk? Give me an example.”
Manny scratched his head while trying to come up with names. After a few seconds of murmuring, he said aloud “ya, ya… dat dude … wat's "is name…it"s on dha tipp of me tunng…….Geez…giv me a sec….”
He danced around for a few more seconds and then said “Well, dhere's dis othr one….. dha one who's on TV all dha time…. I can see "is face …”
But he still could not come up with any name. Then finally he straightened up, looked me in the eye, and declared, “take Obbama, fur exampl.”
“Manny, you already named him, remember?” I said
“Yah, dat"s rite, I deed. Lemme see… dhere'ar so menny of dhem darn elleettisuz…, geez, but I jus can't think about names jus now.”
“Do you consider John Kerry, you know the one who ran against Bush in the last election, an elitist?” I volunteered.
