Carpe Datum

Neighbors

This old guy came to our door last night while I was bathing the two little ones. M*chelle answered, and I also came downstairs to see what was going on while Ashl*y watched the boys. It turns out it was one of our neighbors from up the street, here to warn us not to accept a deal that we had received in the mail.

See, in our area, mineral rights are a huge deal. Lots of drilling companies are trying to pay off residents to the tune of $10k-$20k per acre for the right to drill for natural gas under our neighborhood. Our neighborhood association is telling people not to accept individual deals but wait until all of us can gouge the drilling companies for the most money possible. Every once in a while, we get individual offers in the mail, and we're ignoring them until the neighborhood association contacts us, and this guy was just trying to make sure that we were standing firm.

That's all well and good, and we appreciate it, but then he made some comment about Obama's minister and didn't I care enough to protest him for whatever reason.

The hell?

I told him, "Why the hell should I care what Obama's minister said when it is nowhere near as offensive and demeaning as what other ministers say all the time?"

He comes back with, "Hey, did you know that Obama was a Muslim as a little kid?"

I said, "Oh, so your theory is that he's some kind of terrorist mole? We're going to elect him and he's going to turn over America to the terrorists behind our backs, is that it?"

He shakes his head, "Oh no no, nothing like that, I just think it is interesting."

I said, "Not that it matters, but the guy is a Christian, and this minister is the guy who married him and his wife, baptized his kid, got him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior, so I guess I don't see how you can have a problem with Obama's religion."

He said, "Well, maybe so, but I worry about that. You know, I used to be a Democrat, but then I outgrew it."

I rolled my eyes, "Good for you. I've been a Democrat my whole life, so I guess we can agree to disagree."

He said, "I just don't like my tax dollars being redistributed to a bunch of people who don't work or earn it."

I said, "Are you kidding me? Who the hell do you think is paying billions to bail out all those rich white guys at Bear Stearns? That's a hell of a lot more than it costs to feed some homeless kid a free lunch, you know."

He said, "Well, that may be so, I don't like that either."

I said, "But you only seem to get worked up when the government is handing out money to the poor, and you're missing the Republicans looting the treasury."

At this point, M*chelle gamely broke it up and started shutting the door on the guy, thanking him for coming by, etc. He said, "Well, I'm glad to talk to you. Just remember, it is important that we stick together on the drilling rights."

I said, "Definitely. As a Democrat, I'm a big believer in unions."

He said, "Unions?"

I said, "You bet. What you're doing is smart, it is collective bargaining, and it is something employees aren't really allowed to do much of anymore. Any time I get a chance, I'll take it."

He shook his head without really understanding my point, and we left it at that. Ah, red states.

Posted by Observer at March 20, 2008 07:13 AM