Cancun Day 4: Wednesday; The Rant

I mentioned here and here that I had a rant about Day 4 in Cancun. We were visiting Chitzen Itza which were the closest Mayan Ruins to Cancun. They had made the area into a national park of sorts, to help regulate what happened on, in, near the ruins and what was removed from the area. Apparently that sort of thing was unregulated until the 1970s and so much of the very little that was left of the Mayan history was removed and scattered to the wind.
Nicole and I were in a little tour group through Apple Vacations, and there were 14 of us all together.
We get to the ruins and start walking down the pathways to the main temple (and can I tell you how majestic it seemed to walk through the trees and through the breaks see the temple growing larger and larger as we approached? It was so great.). All along the paths there were groups of people with merchandise spread all over blankets, tables, tarps etc. They would occasionally shout things out like "Cheaper than Walmart!" "Cheaper than that guy over there!" Their product was nice, but now was not the time to shop, it was tour time. We all most ignored them or admired as we kept walking past.
Later in the tour Roberto our tour guide let us know that while what they were selling was nice, much of it had little to do with actual Mayan tradition. He said that while they would carve things, they carved in limestone and not wood. He told a story about a woman that bought a fertility goddess and brought it back to the bus so excited about her find. Roberto had to tell her that there was no fertility goddess in Mayan culture. So he told us to just be careful and remember that not all the stories they tell us are true.
It all honestly seemed like common sense for buying things to me.

That was all it took for a few of the guys in our group. They began to be outright hostile towards the people selling things. Instead of just ignoring them or not engaging them these guys started smarting off. Telling the "cheaper than Walmart" guys that they liked Walmart and at least people at Walmart knew what it was to work. They commented loudly for the clearly English speaking locals to hear that they didn't understand how Mexicans could be so lazy, and why didn't they just get a real job. They also talked about what a waste of time it was for these people to spend hours carving intricate masks and totems to sell for $1 US on the side of a dirt pathway.
Seriously? I mean really? Are people honestly still that ignorant? I mean I probably already knew that but I was so mad. I was SO MAD.
Who the hell do people think they are? Yep, the economy may be crap and there might not be jobs in your industry but there are jobs that you think are beneath you and you would rather starve than take them. Yep, it could be annoying and overstimulating when people would be trying to get you into their "shops" to look at their items. But seriously!?
The drug war is alive and well in Mexico, especially in the Yucatan area. Yet these people are trying to earn honest wages. Not so they can upgrade their iPhone or get a Wii or even to buy the latest Louis Vitton (no idea how to spell that) purse. They are doing all of this so they can eat, feed their families (a lot of them that includes not just their kids but their extended family as well)
Would you PREFER that they are in the drug trade, or in gangs, or *gasp* travelling to America illegally so you can bitch about them there too? Did your mother never teach you that if you have nothing nice to say then just shut up?

I am apathetic at best about the all American way that I so take for granted. Please tell me what a horrible person I am because of that. But I can not stand when the same people that bitch about people living in America not speaking English go to foreign countries and bitch that people don't speak English there!
The worst part, the really worst part for me was knowing that these perfectly nice people trying to make a living heard what they were saying and I saw several of them retreat in shame. There was shame alright, but it was the shame I felt on behalf of these guys.
Everyone is worth something. EVERYONE. No one is worthless in the eyes of God and who exactly do we think we are when we deem someone worthless. Have we decided that we in fact know better than God?

Everything you do and say either lifts people up or tears them down. Everything. Which will you do today?