The woman asked me to “stop your people’ from making noise at the international soccer team picnic in the Eden Prairie suburb. Singing in different language in international festivity for someone an expression of national pride, for others an inconvenience, she asked me to stop the singing and dancing so she could visit with her friends. She asked me to stop a lifetime experience of 21 Egyptians children soccer players who traveled half the globe to play with the Americans. She asked me to stop the exurbanite children’s celebration of their small triumph over the American team. She asked me to stop this rare moment of their victory over the America. Over the west, by 10-12 year-old Egyptians kids who left their home and families and traveled 8,000 mils to have chance to do what their parents and grandparents couldn’t do, a chance to compete with Americans on their own turf with a game those Egyptian kids understand so well, a chance to compete on a playground that is just and fair, to compete in a frontiers where the Americans didn’t and could yet dominate. She asked me to stop the heartbeat of “my people” who , for the first time, were given a chance to compete with Americans without the marines. She asked me to stop the Egyptian kids who just beat the overcoached, over equipped, and oversized Americans team. She asked me to stop the natural process of equilibrium. She asked me to fallow the rules and etiquettes and keep them quite. She asked me to stop those teens who, incidentally, were not drinking, smoking or singing obscenities , to stop their sharing of their national pride and cultural experience, She asked me to stop them “right now”.
I do apologize lady, but I can’t stop the singing of a child, regardless of his/her race or nationality. You can’t stop kids from breaking the adults rules. You can’t stop the rain from falling on your parade. Adults dull world sometimes needs to be excited by a child-like innocence. This is not just Egyptians way, this is also the American way. It is just a game … let us all enjoy it, kids and adults.
Ahmed Tharwat/ Tv host
Arab American TV show
Belahdan
www.ahemdiatv.com
