the neighborhood watering hole

Overheard in Hacienda Heights, CA:

Morning @ the library. overheard a spat between two strangers (retold as accurately as possible):
[middle aged woman at public computer hears annoying low volume music leaking out of a young woman's headphones. she mutters complaints under her breadth, but loud enough that I am able to hear it. she eventually figures out where the music is coming from and walks over to the young woman]

Woman: [a little manically, and very much irked. she definitely looked like she was on something] "turn off that music. it's annoying the hell out of me."
Young woman: "Oh, i'm sorry. i'll turn it off."
Woman: "yeah, it's loud and the whole library can hear it. turn it off. yeesh"
Young woman: "okay i will. i'm sorry."
[middle aged man sitting behind the young woman interjects]
Man [speaking to the woman]: "hey leave her alone! she was just listening to her music through her headphones. it isn't bothering me. you crazy nazi right-wing christian. why are you such a Nazi?!"
Woman: "did you just call me a nazi?!"
Man: "you are a crazy nazi christian. leave the girl alone. she was just listening to her music through headphones."
Woman: "her music was annoying me and we're in a library. I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU JUST CALLED ME A NAZI. i demand an apology. this is harassment!"
Passive librarian [walks over between the man and woman with arms crossed but looking rather meek]: "hey, you two please simmer down."
[at this point the entire part of the library within earshot is watching this heated relay. the librarian becomes a useless spectator]
Man: [getting increasingly louder] "i don't understand why you have to be such a nazi bitch to this girl who was just doing her work and listening to music on her headphones. i'm sitting right here and it's not bothering me"
Woman: "how is any of this your problem?! i demand an apology right now for what you just called me!"
[Woman begins to talk to another librarian about filing some sort of harassment charge against the man.]
Man: [starting to mutter to himself and the young woman as he quickly packs up to leave] "don't listen to crazy nazi christians. don't let them push you around."
Young Woman: [not knowing quite what to say] "thanks for your help"
[Man leaves the library in a frenzy, grabbing laptop, books, pencils in a rush to abandon the crumbling crater of his verbal assault. the aftermath of the spat is felt for little more than half a minute before the library settles back to normality. "Normality is like a tenacious weed." --William Boyd]

it may also be important to add that the Young Woman is Asian American, the middle aged Woman Caucasian, and the Man is Latino--at least from what i could tell. i live in a pretty diverse neighborhood and the library is its watering hole. but never did i expect such public outbursts of (racial, political, social?) hatred to occur in my pleasant "village" of a suburb. i wonder what compelled the Man to use such spiteful language. can i ascribe it to ignorance? it leads me to bemoan the extent of misunderstanding we allow to pass between neighbors, strangers, citizens, people. how easy it is to jump to conclusions, to superimpose our hurt, values, sense of righteousness on how we view the world at large.

this fleeting 5 minute incident i witnessed reminds me, over and over again, of David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech (http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words). we often forget the necessity of controlling our spiraling mental processes. after all, our minds are our own.