Folks, are you getting tired of these? It is taking much longer than I thought it. Neglect of my poor Vagabond. I do have to say that I have to skim over a few of these topics because I'm trying to not paint a horrible picture of certain people in my life anymore. Namely my family. We've come a long way in the last few years and I don't want to go into the ugly, ugly details on some of these things, namely this topic. Question: Have I been in a fist fight? Unfortunately, yes. Not proud moments in my life. Let's just say that my brother and I hugged it out and we're good now.
If the question asked if I had been in verbal altercations, I could list a number of heated arguements I've had with strangers. Once, I stepped in-between a man who was acosting an elderly woman at a pet store. My friend, her children, Em and I had gone to Petco in Memphis when Emmy was three or four years old. A man walked into the store with his two dogs and his woman. We were standing at a display when a large rottweiler violently slid across the floor into an endcap. Of course, we looked up to see what was happening. I mean, what the hell. A few moments later, this woman who was in her 60s was telling the man that he couldn't kick his dog like that. She said that she was going to call the ASPCA to report him. One moment he was denying that he had done any harm to the dog, the next he was explaining that he disciplined his animals that way. Both of their tones got louder when the man started yelling at the woman that she would never had said anything if he was white. More yelling. More accusations. My group walked away because we didn't know what the hell was going on and the only thing we had witnessed was the dog sliding into the endcap.
Now, don't take this as my being passive. I was hot already listening to this conversation but did not want to interfer. The woman never said anything racial. It was never a topic until the man brought it up. She had witnessed the man kick the dog, evidently. We had seen the man come in with his group. I recall seeing the woman with her party near him. Yes, I was angry at the man's accusations because they were a ridiculous arguement and had no basis on what the woman was angry about, and she even tried to say so. But I stayed out of it for the time being.
When my group was finished in the store, we headed to the check-out counters. The man was standing in line. His second dog was also a rottweiler and was still a puppy that he had placed in the cart. His woman was standing beside him. The larger dog, which weighed a good 100 pounds or so, was there beside him also. Because the line was smaller, we got into that line. He looked at me, I commented that his dogs were beautiful and asked if they were friendly, and he said no. We moved. With three young children who like to pet dogs in tow, we moved.
The man paid for his items and left. I was second in line and the elderly woman was two people behind me. She was talking to her party about the incident when the man returned. He walked up to the woman and started apologizing. Wow, I thought. Great gesture. Making peace. Misunderstandings. etc etc etc. He then said something about how he was sorry but reiterated that the woman would have never said anything if he was white. The woman, of course, reacted with "that's not true. You kicked your dog. You can't do that. That's animal cruelty....blah blah." Then the man started yelling and he physically put himself up on the woman. His chest was against the woman as a threat and a dare to continue.
At this point, I yelled "EXCUSE ME!." No response so I yelled it again. When I got his attention, I started yelling at him that race had no issue, animal abuse, etc. This man left the woman and came went around the people and tried to nose up against me. He was almost a foot shorter than me. I remember looking down at him in absolute silence and thinking "what an asshole." I stood there glaring at him and said nothing while he ranted and called me a rascist. Then he walked out.
When we left, there was a truck double parked by the door. The dogs were in the back and the man yelled out the window at me. "BITCH!" Then he sped away.
I could not let that man physically intimidate another person, let alone a senior citizen. I would have physically fought the fucker if it came to that. Luckily, the ass was all mouth and had nothing more to say when a 5'9" woman stared down into his angry face. Perhaps I should have more fear but when other people are in trouble, I get a bit defensive. I only want to protect and am willing to physically fight if need be. I don't like the feeling because I grew up with physical violence. I use a lot of effort to fight the anger inside, which only wants to get out physically....perhaps I need to take a boxing class or something. But violence? Eh, yuck!
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