By Kristine Thomas
A t-shirt and a trailer with handmade signs clearly illustrate Aaron Mengucci and Joseph Quinones have opposing opinions. Mengucci, 36, along with Richard Beck created a t-shirt showing President Barack Obama at the end of the human evolutionary chart with the words in bold red “Stop the Progressive Evolution 2012.” As of late October, Mengucci has sold 600 shirts at $10 each with the money being donated to Wounded Warrior Project. The t-shirts are displayed in the windows of Mengucci’s Silver Falls Pawn shop on Jersey Street in Silverton.
“We created the t-shirt because we are concerned about the direction our country is heading,” Mengucci said. “We are concerned there is money for socialist programs but not money to fix our broken streets or infrastructure and how nothing is getting done in our city or our country because everyone is at a stalemate. We are concerned about unemployment.”
Quinones said he believes the t-shirts are racist.
“I believe racism damages us as a community, a country, a people and as individuals. Because I believe racism is harmful, I believe we have a responsibility to address racism when we see it,” Quinones said.
On a trailer, he placed handmade signs reading, “Racism Hurts Us All” and “Reject Racism.” He has parked his trailer throughout Silverton, including in front of Mengucci’s shop.
Given the political climate, Mengucci and Quinones could have launched personal attacks or vilified their opposition.
Instead, they talked about what they believe, why they did what they did and their vision for their city and nation.
At first, they admit, laughing, the discussion was “pretty heated.”
“The t-shirt is doing what it is supposed to do. It’s bringing people together to talk about ideas,” Mengucci said. “We are talking about political viewpoints. I see this as an argument to stop the progressive movement in our country and he sees it as racial.”
While both men adhere to their beliefs, they are passionate about respecting one another’s rights to freedom of speech.
“I think we are friends,” Quinones said. “We don’t have to agree on everything but we can agree to be respectful and listen to one another’s ideas.”
Both Quinones and Mengucci said the reason they were able to have a “good conversation” and share their opposing ideas is because they didn’t make their arguments “personal.”
Instead, they focused on discussing their differing ideas.
“We believe each of us has the right to our opinion and we believe each of us has the right to respectfully express his opinion and to be respectfully listened to,” Quinones said. “We both believe we are right.”
What disappoints Mengucci is many people have made assumptions about him based on the t-shirt. He wishes anyone with questions would stop by and talk with him.
“It hurts my feelings that some people think I am a racist,” he said. “I believe in the song that says, ‘Jesus loves all the little children, red, black, yellow, white, they are precious in his sight.’ This isn’t about race. It’s about my views on the progressive moment in this country and that our economy is broke and $16 trillion in debt.”
He also said there was a t-shirt with President George Bush at the end of the evolution chart. “Bush did a lot of stupid things but he didn’t push progressive ideas,” Mengucci said. “That’s what this t-shirt is about and discussing how we are going to solve our country’s problems. I think our country is becoming a nanny state where more people are getting something from the government like welfare than there are people paying taxes. If a black president isn’t a sign that racism is dying, I don’t know what is.”
Quinones, 65, is the former director for the city of Portland’s Diversity and Affirmative Action. He grew up as a migrant farm worker, working on farms in Oregon, Washington and California.
“I have faced the brunt of racism growing up,” he said. “I worked for white farmers, some good and some bad. I worked with Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and other Native Americans. What we all had in common was we were poor and we lived on the margins of society. My grandmother told me not to trust white people.”
Through his time serving in the U.S. Army and working with the U.S. Forest Service, he had opportunities to learn about why people believe what they believe and a chance to vent his anger at the way he was treated.
“Wisdom comes when you have experiences, you learn from them and you reflect on them,” he said.
He encourages people to follow the Platinum Rule, which states, “Treat people as they want to be treated.”
“This means understanding where they are coming from, how they live, what they believe and respecting it,” Quinones said. “We all do things differently and that’s OK. We shouldn’t have a moral judgment because we disagree with someone’s beliefs.”
Tolerance, Quinones said, is the lowest stage of connection people can achieve.
“We should aspire to accept one another, despite our differences,” he added.
Mengucci has enjoyed the conversations he has had with Quinones. “I have had people come into my shop and complain about Joseph’s truck,” he said. “I tell them he has to the right to have it parked in front of the store and he has a right to what he’s doing.”
Quinones shared with Mengucci how the graphic design used on the t-shirt is inaccurate “in terms of charting the evolution of man.” He shared how he worries what could happen to someone wearing the t-shirt and how they could be attacked.
“Historically one of the ways we have disparaged and dehumanized African-Americans is to compare them with apes,” Quinones said, adding the KKK and white supremacists groups like the Aryan Nation, The White Patriot Party, Neo-Nazi Skinheads and Christian Identity all promote their belief African-Americans are sub-human by comparing them with apes.
“It was only 47 years ago that we changed the laws so that racism was no longer the law of the land. As we all know, that did not end racism as a social institution. We have come some way since racism ceased to be the law of the land but while no longer legal, racism still lingers today and is manifested in subtle and not so subtle ways,” he said.
Agreeing more needs to be done to educate people, the men are planning to sponsor and host a workshop put on by United to Understand Racism.
“This is not about finger pointing or fighting about who is right or wrong,” Quinones said. “It about figuring out what can be done. ”
And they are hopeful others can learn something from the way they have handled their differences.
Despite their opposing views “we could have a beer together,” Quinones said.
“We have to try to listen to understand and be able to talk about issues with one another,” he said. “We don’t have to agree or respond. But we can listen.”
