Majority game

A dear, dear friend of mine in Atlanta linked this video on her Facebook page. She wrote “think of me when you see this”. It’s about resistance to the building of Islamic Center in Murfreesboro. I have no idea where it is but I can tell that it’s somewhere South from their accent. True enough, after Googling I found that it’s in Tennessee. The moslem community of that city plead that it is their right, as an American citizen, to practice their religion, and to have a place of worship. But the majority decided that they don’t want any of it in their fair city.

Which brings me to another case, this time is closer home in Bogor. GKI Yasmin has received ruling favoring their existence from Supreme Court itself, but again being turned away by municipal administration.

Both cases regarding the minority religions’ places of worship, which being strongly rejected by the majority. It’s the majority game, all over again. With numbers come power, where the majority could crush the minority (if they choose to). We can see that this adage applies universally. Sad, isn’t it? In this age and space, tolerance seems like a very rare commodity.

Kindness of a stranger

I’ve wrote about the inspiring AC repairman before. In total, he had come three times because of complication with one of the older unit in this house. On his last visit, he brought along a stack of old, dusty piano books. The older one was signed and dated in 1949, while one of the ‘newest’ title is Hits of 1973. Some classical (Brahms, Czerny, etc), and some Top Hits books. He just gave those books away. Those could be his books which left dusty and unforgotten once he stopped playing. I don’t know his story, whether he did play piano or not, but I’m touched by his kindness. Those books must be expensive at his time (piano books mostly are expensive, since they’re imported), but he’s willing to give them away. Maybe because he saw that the piano at my house actually being played. Maybe he saw stacks of various piano books, and he knows that someone in the house were skilled enough to play from his old books.

Those books have been dusted and wiped, nevertheless my brother was still coughing when he played from those books. But he enjoys trying song after song, testing his memory of whether he recognized those tunes, and he truly appreciate those books. We, on the other hand, enjoy sitting and listening to the tunes of oldies but goodies melody. In this house, there’s no such thing as outdated music. We enjoy good music, regardless of the era and genre. Be it classic, waltz, jazz or spiritual, we can enjoy them all.

Thank you Pak Safari, for those piano books. You have blessed us with your kindness.