Would have been shot already

An angry,  barefoot, white guy was berating a black guy about some infraction, theft of cigarettes, perhaps, relentless, bearing down on his target, and the genteel lady who had sat down next to me said, 'I guess they have their crazies here too.'

I asked where she and her husband were from and she said, 'In Atlanta, somebody would have pulled a gun already and shot him.'  

The other couple of the foursome had sat across from me and we began to chat about the city and the surprisingly number of people they'd see walking everywhere. 'How many of them are tourists,' they asked. 'Mostly tourists', I guessed, figuring the locals were back in the office or already on their way to the Cape. The women remarked that they felt safe in Boston, in marked contrast to Atlanta, a ghost town at the end of the day. 'I don't like to go there', one said, 'You don't know what can happen.'

Our conversation was about history, Boston so full of it, and the landmarks they'd seen from the tour bus and trips they'd taken to other important sites across the country. I told them of some places they might not know to go to. Boston accents were laughable, but with an assurance that the Yankees they know down there, such as the one teaching water aerobics, were really nice.

Genealogy came up extending back as far as the Civil War battlefield monument where a great great uncle's brother had his .name inscribed

It was clear our worlds were very different. Quickly, if we'd wanted to, we could have found areas of profound disagreement. I might have said, 'If you want a city like Boston, start with gun laws like Boston, but but the vibrancy of this city is its own best argument. Welcome.