BORDERS - the terrible, horrible, not so good, very bad experience

We have been away from Chicago for a week. Our first stop was in Delaware and then in Pennsylvania, to visit two cousins (one mine, the other Jarl's). There will be specific posts on these two visits very soon (we only arrived today in the evening to Chicago, after a 5-hour wait at the airport in Philadelphia because of a nasty summer storm that happened to pass through central Pennsylvania, resulting in all air traffic being grounded throughout the state).

My post this evening is about our terrible, horrible, not so good, very bad experience at BORDERS, the American chain bookstore, at Philadelphia's airport. If I didn't write it now, before going to bed, I suppose I wouldn't be able to fall asleep.

We are all big fans of books so we decided to kill the time before boarding the plane by heading to BORDERS to peruse the latest titles. I told Georgie to go and look at the children's books and see if she found something interesting for us to take home.

I bought a recent book by Chris Cleave (Little Bee) and Jarl a book by Martin Amis (The Pregnant Widow). We went for the Brits. Georgie chose three books, one with Shreck (passable), one with Tinker Bell (full of good advice about traveling through life) and one about Alexander and his terrible, horrible, not so good, very bad day. The latter is a classic of children's literature in English and I recommend it. Little did I know that it would fit our overall experience in the shop.

When I was about to pay for my purchase, the shop manager came to me, with fire in his eyes and spit around his lips, saying "that child is way out of control, way out of control; she takes the books from the shelves and shoves them back in; she's out of control, that child". The attack came so unexpectedly that I barely had time to mumble a "that's your personal assessment". The brute proceeded to tell me that he was going to force me to buy the books that I had just paid for because Georgie had sneezed on them without covering her nose. I told him I couldn't control my daughter's sneezes, to which he replied that I should teach her to cover her nose. "She's only five", I said, but he insinuated that we were one of those parents who think that "she has to be able to express herself", and made a funny mocking voice to make his point. Needless to say I was totally taken aback by his rabid attitude. The cashier was looking at me in total bewilderment and muttered a friendly "I'm sorry".

Although I was burning inside - and believe me, my feelings towards that man were far from being angelic in nature! - I was able to wish him a pleasant life, and more love in the future, because he was obviously lacking both.

Jarl returned his book and justified it with an "unpleasant service" comment. Hurrah for Jarl. I kept my books because three of them were for Georgie and she didn't deserve to be penalised for that brute's stupidity.

Georgie told me that she did have difficulty placing back some of the books in the shelves, but she obviously didn't do any damage to them (otherwise the shop manager would have forced us to buy them...). In fact, she told me that the manager helped her place them back and that she thanked him for it. Sounds civilised.

We are going to complain in writing of course, both to the airport's commercial authority and to BORDERS. Jarl and I are convinced that this was not so much about shoving books or sneezing without covering the nose, but a good example of homophobia, xenophobia and racism. You should have heard the sound of his voice. The man was incensed, outraged, like he wanted us out of his shop pronto. As if we carried some kind of communicable disease.

This happened on the same day that the Human Rights Campaign, a US LGBT rights organisation, announced that the 2010 Texas Republican Party Platform says homosexuals shouldn't have custody of children, that issuing a marriage license or performing a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple should be punishable by jail time, and that it wants to restore 19th-century Texas statutes outlawing sex between men. This is not a minor party in the margin of political life, but the Texan Republican Party! (Bush junior, anybody?) I write this as a reminder that in this great country, viciously bigoted attitudes towards LGBTs - as well as racially motivated discrimination - are still very much alive and part of the mainstream debate in some states. It is also a welcome reminder that Belgium, for all its linguistic fights and loony party politics, is overall a haven of common sense and acceptance. Our family's haven.

I should like to add that one man's stupid behaviour is not enough to destroy the dozens of friendly encounters we have had with all sorts of people since our arrival to the US. It's just that a bruise of the soul hurts so much more than a physical one. And it takes longer to heal.

(L)