Jim Morrison Was Right...People
are strange when you're a stranger.
I heard about
this one on the news this morning. Some members of a church in Rancho Cucamonga got nervous about three men with shaved heads who suddenly started showing up to church services in April. They were certain these guys were skinheads and were "up to no good." Before the service ended, the men stood in the front of the congregation and looked around, and then left without saying a word. They came back on the next Sunday, sitting together and talking to each other through the service. Somebody called the sheriff.
Of course, the men turned out to be Marines, just back from Iraq. They were looking for a fellow Marine in the church. They were very polite to the sheriff's deputies and very cooperative.
The priest later explained the whole thing to his parishioners. He's quoted as saying, "We don't want to make it more than it is."I was reassured by the police that (the men) wouldn't be back." Yeah, no wonder! :-)
One woman from the parish was quoted as saying, "I was just upset that they went inside the church and did this to us. It was very disrespectful." Y'know, I've been to church services before. There are people who do all sorts of odd things. My father always mutters witty quips to me throughout the service -- he just can't help himself. Then there was that boy in my school who sat in a pew with a whole package of Pop Rocks going pop-pop-pop in his mouth, loud enough for everybody to hear. Nobody called the police. But then again, neither of them had shaved heads. Sure, the guys could have come in and asked for help. But they were probably shy. And seeing how people suspected them of being skinheads right off the bat, I can see why...
Don't these people read the news? These days, when I see men with short haircuts, the *first* thing I think of is "armed services." The second thing I think of is "I hope he doesn't get killed." The third thing I think of is "OK, he *might* be a skinhead," but I usually think of that jokingly.
Besides, I can never hear the name Rancho Cucamonga without thinking of that great Jack Benny skit in the railroad church with the announcer saying "Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga," over and over again, until he got desperate and begged people to get on the train. :-)
