Ignore--ance.

It's a shame when ignorance is passed around the world via e-mail.

What's worse is how unaffected I was by that hateful and prejudicial ignoranace that was delivered to my inbox that day.

Worst of all is how surprised I was that someone who was not targeted by the bigotry, armed herself with furious fingers, stabbed letters on a keyboard, and wrote out loud in defense of Islam.

She debated whether she should even send me the note about a young Iranian boy who had allegedly stolen something and was subsequently (allegedly) sentenced to a car plowing for theft. She did "not want to piss me off". After much deliberation, she hit send.

Three pictures of the boy, with his arm placed on a towel, readied for an inevitable running-over, were attached. The content, written in both English and Hebrew, described that the child had being subjected to this violence in accordance with Islamic punishment. The message was that this is Islam and Islam is barbaric.

The truth is that this is not Islam and Islam is not barbaric. I know that. My colleague knows that. It's possible that even the sender of the e-mail knows that. Anyone who could muster the energy to flip a page in a book or scroll down a computer screen could know that too.

But ignorance is easier. It doesn't take much work or moral judgement. Ignorance is the polluted playground for bigots and fanatics and maniacs. They lure imbeciles and ignoramuses (made such by choice or accident), and feed them toxicity. And the ignorant absorb the ignorance through their pores and their eyes and their ears and their nostrils and their brains. But not through intelligence.

My colleague is intelligent. The e-mail sender's attempt failed miserably on her. The e-mail content, however, did succeed in prompting my colleague to counter ignore-ance with education.

She read me the draft she was composing to the e-mail instigator. I congratulated her, saying her words are much calmer than mine would be.

I grabbed my belongings, and on my way out said, "If anyone would like to discuss the truth in a civil matter, you let them know that I'd be happy to accommodate them."

I debated internally whether that was really true--the pictures angered me, the Hebrew simultaneously fueled my fire and stole from it, the ignorance gave me no pause--it was frustrating and it was 3adee.

I got in my car, and proceeded to unleash a verbal raping that would've made any prison bully scream, "mercy." The recipient of my fury: my steering wheel. Time: About 30 seconds. Then, I rehearsed my standard vanilla response--lest I be seen as barbaric.

I have become a zombie to these scenarios that have played out so many times before they might as well be on schedule: 0-1 minute, ignorance; 1-3 minutes, anger; 3-3:30 minutes, release; 3:30 to 5 minutes, response.

But beyond the wrath against my steering wheel and a couple venting sessions to my parents, I was not propelled into movement by the bigotry and prejudice that was spread by that e-mail. In this case, I practiced ignore-ance. I ignored to self-preserve. It still hurts, but the pain is muffled. It still infuriates but the fury is fainter. It still disgusts, but does not provoke heaves of regurgitation. Why? Because it is expected.

It's a shame when ignorance is allowed to proliferate around the world via e-mail.

It's a surprise when it is halted by just writing and speech.

And I was surprised and mobilized by my colleague's actions and those of Ben Affleck (affectionately referred to as "3aflek" by Arabs now): I told others of my righteous colleague; I posted a link to the Ben Affleck YouTube clip. And the news spread like a virus on a playground. Why? Because justice and truth and work are not expected.

What a shame.