On 'pretty good guys' and deep-seated divisions
By Powell Slaughter, Case Goods Editor -- Furniture Today, March 31, 2002
Never far from my mind, memories of that horrifying Tuesday last September flooded back during High Point premarket. On my way to the Lexington showroom, I remembered my visit there last fall, just after the first round of attacks had been reported on radio.
People were glued to cell phones, passing on reports of missing planes, another crash. Nobody knew what was going on, but we all knew the world had changed for Americans, and everyone else too.
An earlier encounter a long way from home also had me thinking about that year-ago September.
I spent 10 days recently in Brazil, attending two furniture shows in Rio Grande do Sul. There, I had lunch with a Brazilian manufacturer and a potential client of his, a buyer from the Middle East whose company has huge holdings throughout the region, not only in furniture stores but hotels, office buildings and other channels for furniture distribution.
I found the buyer an educated, well-traveled man, all in all what we'd call a "pretty good guy," funny and good company.
That's when things got interesting. Talk turned to the vagaries of air travel these days, and he asked me when the United States was going to offer "proof" the Arabs on the airplanes that crashed Sept. 11 had acted under any orders besides those of their own opinions.
He suggested that maybe the whole thing was a plot perpetrated by the United States as an excuse to attack other countries. Let's just say the conversation got spirited, if not out of hand. I granted him the fact that many Americans tend not to look past our own borders until something big happens, but I firmly held the line on who and what I believe was behind the attacks.
Please don't get the impression the gentleman wasn't horrified by Sept. 11. He doesn't support the killing of innocent people, but like many in his part of the world, he often distrusts the United States. I understand that, but I don't accept it as evidence supporting his arguments.
While I was on the verge of completely losing my temper, and probably would have if he'd broached the subject again, he clearly was not attacking me as a person. He urged me to visit his country, where I'm sure he would be an engaging host. And we found common ground on more subjects than not.
It was a lesson in how deep are the divisions among hearts and minds in this world, especially those of "pretty good guys." While my job is no way to get rich in financial terms, the travel involved always offers a lot in the way of such learning experiences.
And even if I don't accept a viewpoint, I welcome the opportunity to hear it and to respond to it, particularly on gut-wrenching issues like Sept. 11.
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