Last Sunday night, I took my son to a great fireworks show at Fort McHenry, the birthplace of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” in honor of Flag Day. He got his first real taste there of good old-fashioned American patriotism, with a brass marching band belting out prideful tunes and dazzling red, white and blue colors lighting up the downtown skies (and reflected in the murky harbor waters).

But he also got something else that I hadn’t bargained for – his first real taste of good old-fashioned American bigotry.

Here’s what happened. After the program ended, we and thousands of others headed back to our parked cars, many of which were located outside of the fort. It was a beautiful night, and everyone was in a great mood after the wonderful presentation. The police officers kept us in line, asking folks to make sure to stay on the sidewalks, to keep the main street clear for emergency vehicles and motorists who were lucky (and early) enough to park inside the fort itself.

But as we all made our way out, I saw a strange-looking man on the street near the sidewalk who appeared to be selling fluorescent glow sticks. I barely paid any attention to him, he was just one of those guys you see at events selling stuff, when I heard him yell out (while looking down at his merchandise), “The Jews are accursed by God! The Jews are accursed by God!” Then, he said nothing.

Huh? The Jews are accursed by God? Where’d that come from? Was he some kind of Old Testament prophet with a dire warning? (He did have a straggly beard and glazed-over eyes.) Did he have some kind of inside information? What do Jews have to do with glow sticks?

At first, I didn’t think I heard him right, so I just kept on walking. But his odd words continued to ring in my ears. “The Jews are accursed by God!” I thought to myself, “Why did he just say that out of the blue?” So I looked around and noticed an Orthodox family walking directly behind us, dressed in kippot and long dresses. When their young children asked about the man’s odd words, the mother looked embarrassed and tried to laugh. “He didn’t say anything,” she told them, “don’t pay attention. Everything is fine. Don’t worry about it.”

I didn’t think my 7-year-old son caught it, but when we got into my car, (sure enough!) he asked, “Dad, why did that man say that Jews are cursed by God? What did he mean by that? I don’t get it.”

I thought for a moment before answering. “Well, Josh,” I told him, deciding to go for the honesty route, “there are a lot of weird, sick, strange people in this world, and I guess that man is just one of them. He doesn’t like that Jewish people are different from him, and that’s not what tonight was all about.” Then, of course, I tried to change the subject. But from my rear-view mirror, I could see the little wheels spinning in my son’s head.

Driving home, I thought about that great scene in the film “Witness” when Harrison Ford, playing a tough Philly cop hiding out in an Amish community and posing as a “plain person,” beats the living hell out of a couple of secular ne’er-do-wells who mess with him and Kelly McGillis’s family. I daydreamed about going over to that anti-Semitic street vendor creep and showing him a few new things he could do with those glow sticks.

But then I thought better. After all, strangling a nut-job in front of one’s kid and other youngsters might not be the best or most mature way to handle an unfortunate situation.

But in the same week that a white supremacist walks into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and kills a security guard, and a Republican activist makes a “joke” about the First Lady being related to a gorilla, you can’t blame a man for daydreaming about kicking a bigot’s butt, now can you?

Maybe sometimes we Jews are a bit too civilized for our own good. Maybe at least one of us should’ve gone over and looked Mr. Glow Stick in the eye and said, “Do you have something to say, pal? Who’s really cursed here?”

Ah, why do I always think of these things too late?