Bigotry and my hatred thereof

The fact that this post follows the peaceful post of "Grace" is just flat irony, but whatever.

I have promised this story to several so here we go....


As many of you can attest to I am pretty much an easy going person to the world in general.
I do my best to see things through other's point of view, am fairly easy going in traffic, allow others to cut in front of me in line without having to justify my position on this earth, I take most idiosyncrasies with a grain of salt and keep going. However, as some of you have experienced any form of bigotry is going to make my blood pressure rise and will usually result in a verbal taking down of said bigot.

Wednesday was a perfect case in point. I will start my story with the words of my friend Tim...

"There I was minding my own business...
in line at Petsmart purchasing food for king of the apartment, Picasso. The cashier is an unattractive woman who I would judge to be in her mid-40's, with definately mental reason to be a cashier at the age of 40 (not that cashiers at 40 are bad people who knows I may be a cashier at 40, but you get the picture.)....I will leave it at that not wishing to be unkind. *smirks

This cashier is checking out the person in line in front of me, so I am patiently waiting and half listening in to the conversation that they are having and half thinking other random thoughts. My ears come on high alert however when she mentions "China" so I turn and begin listening with both ears to the conversation being played out. This cashier is going on and on about the horrible work that the Chinese do, and how we have trusted them to make toys for our children and now look they are trying to kill us off by putting lead paint on them. She continues on at how the Chinese are stealing our jobs and how horrible and cheap their products are, blah blah blah. She gives an example about how she bought a pair of shoes once that were made in in China and they fell apart after wearing them once (I am thinking to myself if you ever bought a pair of shoes at Payless you for sure have worn more than one "made in china" and probably the ones you have on now are from there as well).....She ends her tirade with the phrase "down with China." The person checking out seems a bit uncomfortable with the conversation as a whole, says..."sure"...and leaves.

My blood pressure is pretty close to boiling at this point and I am thinking that one word from this woman to me about China is going to send me over the edge!!! So she asks how i am I say "Fine." -through gritted teeth and stand there as she checks out my wares, silently counting to 10 then 20 then 30 trying to calm my outraged self down.

Finally, as I sign my sales slip I say...
"Ma'am, I have a comment about your conversation just now on China...."
I take a deep breath and off I go...
"If you were to remove everything around you that was not in some way shape or form manufactured in China you would be standing on a cement floor - the cement from which BTW came from Mexico, you would not have a car to drive and you would be naked!! The people to blame for the current crisis in Chinese manufacturing plants are not the chinese workers who are slaving around the clock making less than minimum wage; but the greedy American consumer who wants everything right now and wants it "cheap." Pressure from parents who believe that their children should have so many toys they cannot walk in their rooms causes American managers to put pressure on said manufacturers resulting in unfortunate choices made by factories to try to make any profit at all. So before you decide to go off about the Chinese people next time, remember that there could be someone standing nearby who actually has people there that he/she loves, and.....get an education."


With that I walked out of the store. Pretty sure she is still standing there stuck on the word "naked".
The End.