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Edited on Thu Oct-05-06 05:21 AM by RoyGBiv
This is Oklahoma ... an important detail.
So I was at work today, sitting behind my desk, and a gentleman came in who visits a couple times a month. He's there ostensibly to pay his bill and ask about potential new services, but he really wants to talk. He'd gone off on a rant in front of me when I first met him, and after listening to it, I told him, "I agree with every word you just said." That started a series of visits.
His initial rant was about what assholes Republicans are, about how corporations conspire to drive up prices so that people like him, a disabled war veteran who lives on a military pension, can't afford even the mildest of luxuries, can barely afford anything. ("I took lead for Uncle Sam, and that rat bastard wants me to eat SPAM for the rest of my life.) It was a beautiful rant, something that made me want to stand up and applaud, but I'm not allowed that kind of overt expression of personal beliefs at work. So, what I did was simply let him talk without trying to cut the conversation short, and I let him know I liked hearing what he was saying.
And when he came in today, he had another rant to give me, and I listened, and I smiled, and I urged him on.
A guy standing behind him got pissed, partly because he was having to wait, but mostly because the older gentleman was trashing everything the BushBot in line thought was sacred. "This Foley story? A distraction, distracting us from the fact they just up-ended the Constitution and are trying to make us believe it's for our own good. Oh, and that Foley story. Who cares that he's gay or whatever. Here's the part that straps my hide. These bastards spent 10 brazillion (I wonder if he reads this site, and if he does and sees this, please PM me because you're my hero) dollars crucifying Clinton for getting a blow job from an adult, and now they want us to think it's okay for this guy to get his thrills off fanasizing about teenagers while going out preaching about how bad all these people are who use the Internet to basically fantasize about screwing teenagers, how they need to be put in jail."
And the guy behind him lost it. The stream of absurdities that flowed from his mouth are nothing I want to repeat here. It's all been said before.
So the gentleman I was talking to turned to him after telling me "I'll go now" and said to this idiot, "How many wars you fight in, buddy?" as he flashed his Korea and Vietnam service badges.
This 70+ year old man stood there, staring down this rat bastard, chickenhawk punk, daring him to make a move.
The even better part? The security guard was standing aside, waiting for it to happen, waiting for the punk to try something because at that point, this individual who has had a friend die in Iraq, was tired of it as well and wanting an excuse. The visual was better than my words are. The security guard basically stood in reserve, ready to step in if the ex-marine, by some miracle, wasn't able to punch this idiot's clock if it came to that.
I don't know why really -- some part of me wanted it to devolve -- but I spoke up at this point and told the idiot-boy to step out of line and leave, which is the cue that allows the security guard to force him to leave if he refuses.
And so it went. He left. The security guard commented on the "dumb punk" while the older gentleman waved and said "see ya later."
Good day for a Wednesday.
In Oklahoma.
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