Guest Relations
Page 1 of 1

World Relations

If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about the real world for a second.

One of the great things about attending a Disney theme park is that you never really have to talk about the real world.

You don’t want to talk about the next presidential race, when you’re trying to get to the Hall of Presidents.

You don’t want to talk about a new flare-up in Chechnya, when the lines are short in Critter Country.

That’s why we’re always angered when the real world tries to seep in to the Disney parks.

Such can be said of the current controversy surrounding the new Israel exhibit at Epcot.

The Arab outcry over the exhibit seems silly on the surface as it is. It seems even sillier to one who has actually visited Epcot’s World Showcase.

In a short walk, you can travel the world. Along the way, you realize how great the world can be when you live together in peace, while still respecting each other’s culture. Epcot can do to a person in a day what the United Nations hasn’t been able to do in over 50 years.

Yet, there are those who would like to spoil this paradise with the conflict of the real world. It is an unwelcome intrusion.

I have to admit an obvious bias in this case. I am a Jew, though I’ve never actually been to Israel and have a very un-Jewish name.

Still, I can never understand the conflict that surrounds the real Jerusalem. It should stand as the world’s beacon of peace. It represents the center of not one, but three of the world’s religions.

All three of those religions preach peace, yet Jerusalem remains a center of dispute. Jews say it’s their capital, so do Palestinians. Here’s a thought … Why can’t it be both their capitals? I digress. You’re prone to doing that when speaking of this issue. Which is why this dispute doesn’t belong at Epcot.

Arab groups are doing nothing but fulfilling the stereotype of Arabs as sword-wielding infidels, chopping off people’s fingers for littering.

It’s a bad stereotype, and far from a true one. However, when you promote conflict above peace, you’ll look like the bad guy every time.

There are reports that Disney will allow a separate, Arab Jerusalem to be created at Epcot to appease the protesters.

This news saddens me. It not only marks the separated Jerusalem coming into Epcot, it also brings the real world into it.

A Jerusalem at peace is a fantasy at the moment, but people don’t go to Disney World for reality.

At this rate, the It’s A Small World ride will be refurbished with the little audio-animatronic kids throwing rocks at each other. Instead of singing, the children of the world will slap each other across the face.

I suggest a different figure added in between the two Jerusalems at Epcot.

It would be an audio-animatronic Rodney King, saying simply, “Can we all just get along?”

Until next time … All we are saying, is give peace a chance.