Newspaper article 16June05 - Racial bigotry in aisle 66 (1/2)

[HaraKiriBlade]

First of all, here's the link to the article:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry+in+aisle+66

Luckily for me, the article wasn't one of the subscribers-only. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to ask all the questions I wanted to ask.

Here it goes:

The young man who wandered into Canadian Tire that night made two mistakes. First, he thought I was a harmless old coloured man. (I may look retired, but I'd recently turned 48.) Second, he thought he understood current events. ("You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror." Clichés are the swords on which empires fall.) And so, even as he passed in front of me, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, "Beat it!"

a1. What current events is he talking about?

a2. Clichés are the swords on which empires fall - empires go out of business (ha!) because the very Clichés it safeguards works against it? or am I stretching too far?

a3. "Beat it!" - What exactly does it mean? All I know, from reading the context, is that the young man clearly insulted the columnist. Words of insult. That much I get. Could anyone explain it further? why "BEAT it"?

He stood talking on the phone and kept one eye on me while she and I chatted in farewell. (She was studying business administration and I'd done public admin, many years before.)

b1. chatted in farewell? so the two chatted, said "bye" and went on their ways?

Continued (continuing?) on to the next post...

[Tdol]

Beat it = Get lost
I'm not sure what the current events are.

Chatted in farewell- presumably they were taking a long time over it