So it was just another quick errand to the store because I had a craving for the taste of sourdough dipped into an olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture. Securing some sourdough, I quick-marched to the opposite end of the store to check on the grapes. But same as the last couple of weeks, the grapes weren't sweet or firm, so I grabbed a couple of apricots to put in my daughter's lunch. I noticed members of what I assumed were an extended family hovering over a nearly empty bin of corn, mainly because they were being a little loud. Hunter-gathers, I thought, probably because I am reading a book about Vikings and I am now more educated about pre-historic Scandinavia then I was last week.
A store employee was rushing by, and the patriarch of the group called out, asking if there was any more corn in the back. The employee responded that she didn't work in this department but would go have someone check.
"Well, I know you work in a union...." I looked at the guy, thinking "What???"
The employee stopped, and said, "I don't mean that." By which I think she was saying - "I didn't just tell you it's not my job". She went on to elaborate: "I don't work in produce." Which of course means, she doesn't have a clue what is in the vegetable inventory in the back of the store. Besides, I have seen countless instances of someone who does work in the produce section tell the customer they also didn't know if there was more of a particular item, and then proceed to go back and look. At any rate, I didn't think he was justified in telling her he knew she had an excuse for being (as he seemed to think) a lazy and unhelpful retail employee, or whatever else he was rudely implying.
So the guy just repeats "I know you guys have a union."
<< Alert - the following bit is what I wish had happened next >>>
"Hey, she just said she would get someone to help you. Cut the anti-union crap!" I yelled at the guy. He looked at me with a puzzled expression. Maybe he was astonished I was ignoring the possibility that he was the alpha male of the group, who doesn't get confronted by anybody with a brain in their head.
Before he could say anything I continued.
"She doesn't know anything about the produce inventory. It's called "division of labor."
You obviously don't know anything about the history of unions in this country. If you did you wouldn't be insulting this employee. You probably have your head filled with Fox News lies about all our economic problems being the fault of the unions. Right now only about seven percent of workers in this country belong to unions, and that is why the middle class is disappearing. The unions spent 60 years helping to create a prosperous middle class, and ever since Reagan started union-busting workers have been losing their meager leverage against the big business owners. When unions were strong even non-union workers were treated better and got paid more. When the unions are finally gone the middle class will be too. And we will all be working seven days a week, with Sunday morning off for going to church, just like before there were any unions. Unless you are one of the owners with millions of dollars in your bank accounts, the unions are your friend. So, cut the anti-union crap!"
The guy looked really mad now and walked over to me. "Shut up, you liberal twerp".
So I said, "Don't you realize the owners of this country control the corporate media?
They get us workers fighting each other like kids in the school yard so the rich kids can break into our lockers and steal our lunch money."
"Oh, so you want to fight?"
When I woke up in the hospital the cops asked me if I wanted to press charges.
<< Back on planet earth>>>>
Of course I just shook my head at the ignorance and went to pay for my stuff. But then, all the way home I thought of all the sharp words of truth that I should have spoke to cut through the guy's Fox News helmet protecting him from seeing reality. But my thoughts are never so clear and orderly that I can politely debate with a stranger in such a public moment. I get so mad at the obvious Fox News brainwashing that I can't say what needs to be said, at most I can just utter knee-jerk liberal sound bites. I think it makes me re-live the moment when my father, may he rest in peace, asked me if I knew that global warming was a hoax, and I reeled from the knowledge that he had become brain-washed by Fox.
I live in a really blue part of the world, but I seem to keep hearing more and more "low information voter" attitude when I'm in public. And I don't know how to politely tell some one they are grossly misinformed, or perhaps willfully ignorant.
Is there a vast army of people like myself, muttering in a low voice, avoiding confrontation? Wow, what if we all spoke up?
Acknowledgement - Yes, I am a San Francisco Bay Area latte-drinking, tree hugging, people-of-color tolerant, bleeding heart liberal. I don't have the state certificate to prove this because I don't own a Prius. Yet.