Umar: A Man Disenfranchised

AA

Alhamdullilah and MashaAllah, my brother Umar recently matched into a residency internal medicine program in Milwaukee. It was his top IM choice and forces him to become a "real" doctor now. :) Which is great for me because I had to admit that if he went into radiology, I would've been upset that he couldn't as easily prescribe me free drugs and all the other fringe benefits a "real" doc would get. Haha. Plus, his excellent (mashaAllah) bed side manners would've been gone to waste and an trait like that is very important to have in a patient's well-being.

Anyway, what should've been a celebratory email from Umar turned into something ugly, enlightening, and ultimately disappointing and alarming. So now I ask you to read the following recent email correspondences and make the same call I did: Umar is in fact disenfranchised:

16-Mar-2006: Umar sends email to close family/friends announcing the following (pay specifc attention to the bold/italics):
"Assalaamu alaikum,

Alhamdulillah, I've matched to internal medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. I'll start in July, insha'Allah. Long term I may pursue something in cardiology or pulmonology, but it's a little early to say right now. It will be sad to leave Chicago, but Milwaukee is really just a northern suburb, after all...

I can finally be a Green Bay Packers fan in the open..."

17-Mar-2006: Tareq Mahmud - a fellow UofC alum like Umar and one of his close friends who hails from Philly - responded:
"salam, Congratulations dude! Although Milwaukee isn't nearly as exciting asfun-filled central PA I'm glad you matched somewhere. But sad to leaveChicago? Man, you haven't lived in Chicago since '99. Be real....I'm glad you can be somewhere where people will be more accepting of yourkind and where you can find a community of individuals like yourself. Iadmit when you came out as a Green Bay Packers fan last year I had a lot oftrouble coping with it and trying to understand. You see, my belief systemjust doesn't accept people who have made that choice or who were born thatway or whatever. But I want you to know that, although I secretly hope fora scientific cure to Packers-fannism, I'm trying really hard to accept it,and if that's what you think is best for you in your life, then I'll supportyou in your insanity...."

18-Mar-2006: Umar Shakur's really gay reply:
"Walaikum assalaam dude,

Thanks, thanks a lot. I'll have you know, Packers fan are people too. Sure we may be "different," sure we wear hats that look like cheese, sure most of the fans smell like cheese, but as a until-now expatriate Packers fan, these are things I put up with in the name of one thing: victory.

Sure we had an anomalous year - a terrible year - last year, but I can't wait til this year starts and the Bad News Bears reveal their true colors. And I really can't wait until Orton gets traded to another team (hopefully Green Bay) and becomes a stand-out quarterback while the Bears foolishly struggle on with Grossman.

We shall see who laughs last, muahahahahaha"

20-Mar-2006: My insightful response that pretty much summarizes Umar Shakur:
"AA guys,

Ignoring Umar's very gay reply, allow me to build upon Tareq's email. You will note that this will inevitably be posted on my blog:

See, Tareq, I guess I have a long way to go. I cannot in anyway bring myself in supporting my brother just because he thinks something is good for him. Let's come to reality here. We're talking about Umar. Umar Shakur, to be specifc. A man, as we all know, that will support any sports team based on his affinity towards that team's logo and/or color scheme. A man who will ask, "When is the Super Bowl?" two weeks after the fact. And finally, a man who professes to be a devout Chicago White Sox fan (coincidentally during their championship season) but cannot name a single player without looking at http://www.chisox.com/.

So you see, I just can't bring myself to look past these troubling issues. It's hard. In fact, I often wake up in the middle of the night waking up my mother yelling, "Mommy, you can't be a Bears fan and GB Fudge Packers fan and still be considered human, right? It's not possible, right, mama?" My mom laughs saying, " Azubillah, Imran. You're just having a bad dream. Nothing like that can exist unless the person has no back bone. No go back to sleep."

Alas! Little does dear old mother know about her middle son's dangerous obsession and flirtation with the inherently stupid and prolifically gay GB Packers.

Actually I hear stories -- troubling stories -- of Umar disrespecting the Eagles, your team, Tareq. Again, another tragic example of how Umar spits in the face of Chicago -- the friggen land that raised, cultivated, and nourished him -- by dissin Chicago's own Donovan McNabb. I mean, at least show some due consideration here! A few yrs back when Philly beat Da Bears in the playoffs, I was sad, but at least I knew that it was one of our own that beat us. Sure, the Eagles didn't have a great season this past yr, but they were by no means the laughable GB Packers [abrupt and roaring laughter from everyone reading this for even considering the thought!].

Finally, Tareq, I have some hesitation is continuing to dilude my brother in his simply whacked football beliefs. In his response, he acquainted the words "victory" and "Packers." WTF? Is he serious? I think this only means one thing: the multiple sacks the Bears has on Favre somehow also caused Umar a concussion. And in true Umar-esque fashion, he still disrespected his team by saying, "Sure we had an anomalous year - a terrible year - last year."

Umar, it's not about living in a fool's paradise and thinking that your team is untouchable or infallible, but it's the principle here. One second Umar will be like, "Bears won?! NO WAY, man! I told you these guys are the Monsters of the Midway!!" The next second, "Bears lost?! I figured they would. Anyway, did you see the Houston Texans?! They won! Man, these guys are gonna take it all the way...! I've loved them since Day 1. Woo hoo! And their colors look, like, totally cute, too. Heehee..."

Cheers."

Rgds