So I gotta tell ya. It's happened again. It hasn't happened since probably '96 or so. Around this time, things just start to feel ugly. Now back then, I felt confident that it was some sort of mild seasonal affective thing. (Pause: "Back then" in this case was precisely when I had just begun my friendship with Crayons. Man does time fly...cheers buddy!) That was the year I became very conscious of it after taking note that it had been happening for many years. I had been pretty lazy and usually gained a little weight. So every March/April afterwards, I made an honest attempt to fight this and stay positive. By the way, spring fever was certainly part of it, but I think other people's spring fever/S.A.D. was just spilling onto me and I was just getting tired of everyone's pessimism. Well it seems to be happening at work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. It's an office job, but I work with a tight-knit group of colorful personalities not even big enough to field a starting lineup for a hockey team. But alas, I work with plumbers and HVAC technicians. They are great at what they do, and what they do makes all our lives more comfortable to live in. However when it comes to issues outside of laying pipe or replacing nipples and bushings, they can be, as George Carlin would say, single-digit and low-frequency. I decided to take a swing at the bee hive to see what was brewing. I asked one guy who I know is on the opposite side from me of every possible spectrum that you could drum up about the VA Tech shooting. Could this be my opportunity to make a small plug for gun control? Predictably, and without a moment's hesitation, he makes some comment that involved the words "illegal immigrant." That's right. He went right for his favorite hot button issue. No mention of a messed up kid (23 years old is still a kid, btw) suffering from depression who happened to come here from S. Korea when he was 8 (you do the math) and was on a green card. All he had to know was that he looked foreign and he was foreign. The late Mitch Hedberg would argue Xenophobia should be spelled with a Z, but I digress. I'm not defending this kid's way of dealing with his own alienation, but the Columbine kids were all white, so this crap comes from all corners of the globe.
Then, for an encore, I brought in an old Mother Jones magazine with a cover story, "Why Do You Love to Hate Hillary?" just to see what kinds of reactions I'd get. Needless to say, none were favorable. All they cared about is her last name is Clinton and that she didn't keep her yapper shut for 8 years like a good first lady ought to. Now I'm not sure how I feel about her because I don't really know that much about her except what I read in the article (which I didn't even finish yet), but I know that I don't know that much and will be paying attention over the next 19 MONTHS! None of these people at work could even feign a substantive answer as to why they don't like her. It's getting to the point where I care less and less about which political party platform I might find myself on....JUST KEEP ME OFF THE SAME BOAT AS THESE JACK@SSES!! My only hope is that I can continue to conduct myself in a respectful, intelligent manner so that if they can manage to soothe their own spiritual hypertension just a smidge, they might come to associate healthy dialogue and a truly humane engagement with people on the other side of this godforsaken teeter-totter. Like Gandhi said, the means must be in alignment with the desired outcome....or something like that. Like I even needed to tell all of YOU! Spring is on the way guys. Stay dry. See you soon.
~Sleepy
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