Run in with prejudiced fisherman leaves bite marks on tongue

Disliking people because they are different is a strange business.

It brings to mind the guy whose life was being threatened by a bank robber who was holding a gun to the guy’s head. All he could think of was to ask the bank robber to protect him from the Hispanic security guard, the Jewish policeman and the Muslim bank customer.

When talking to people who have a hard time dealing with others who are not exactly like them, it is hard to know what to say. Emotions control reason. Generalizations have grown based on specific examples.

When I fish in the Canadian far north, I meet people from all walks of life. There are big business people, small entrepreneurs, a man who had a plumbing business and his wife, people who made money on the stock market and those who made it the old fashioned way by working their tails off.

The most recent time around, there were two elderly gentlemen who were brothers, one retired from teaching farm-animal husbandry and the other had been a mechanic. There was a retired veteran who had served as a tank commander in two major conflicts including the Vietnamese War. He made me feel proud to be an American, and I had the privilege of having dinner with him every night for a week.

There were people from Austria, people who worked in Japan, the Philippines, and elsewhere, even Republicans from the good old USA, and Democrats too.

I felt pretty good because there was a heart specialist and his buddy, a dentist, in camp for a week and a half. I figured if I caught a big fish and my heart leaped into my throat, I could get one or the other to fix the problem.

There was one fisherman to whom I paid particular attention. He was up early in the morning, one of the first out on the lake in the morning, and one of the last in at the end of the day. However, when I chatted with him it turned out that he was not a fan of diversity. He did not like Black people. He did not like Hispanic people. He did not like people who knelt down on a rug to pray. And he was not shy about offering his views to anyone who would listen.

This fisherman was outspoken. And he was very sure of himself. It was hard for me to talk with him while I was clenching my teeth and biting my tongue.

When he was on the water, he spent a lot of time browbeating his young Canadian guide. I heard that the guide had a lot of trouble understanding why this American fisherman was so set against immigration, against people of color, against people who were non-Christian, and even against people who did not speak English as their first language.

The guide later told me that he tried to explain how Canada, like the United States, is a country of immigrants. It is dominated by two official languages — English and French — but there are other languages of prominence as well, including Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian and more. This does not count the languages spoken by native peoples including Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, and three different dialects of Inuktitut. Although the country relies on the metric and Celsius systems, many people understand the English equivalents and convert easily to feet and Fahrenheit.

With the exception of the native peoples, everyone else has come from all corners of the globe. They get along and see each other as making their country more interesting, a plethora of color, backgrounds, customs, differing traditions and beauty. The guide pointed out the diversity in the guides themselves, who were from various backgrounds with heritages from different countries.

The guide also told me how difficult it was for him to stay in the boat with this fisherman. Short of leaving the fisherman on shore someplace, there was not much else the guide could do but to listen and try to offer a bit of reason.

The fisherman asked the guide what happens when foreigners or immigrants commit all these crimes? The young Canadian said that in his country that the person, and only that person, who committed the crime would be held accountable — and that Canadians on the most part do not blame a whole group of people for the actions of one person. Canadians do not always get along, but everyone — from the government on down — attempts to emphasize the positives in people.

Upon reflection I, too, noticed a mutual respect among people of differing backgrounds during the time I spent in Winnipeg on the way to and the way home from the fishing lodge. At the hotel, and at a shopping mall nearby, there were men, women (two holding hands), Muslim, Hindu, Christian, English, French, Indian, Pakistani, Near Eastern, Pacific Rim and other peoples who I could not identify — all working, shopping or visiting like me.

By the end of the week something may have clicked. I noticed the fisherman was no longer expounding on the virtues of an all-white, Christian world, centered on America first, with everyone else being second class. I don’t know if the guide was successful in changing this fisherman’s mind or not, but at least the fisherman was not so full of himself.

And the bite marks on my tongue had a chance to heal.

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials, promo and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Did Canadian fishing guide get through to prejudiced angler?