I'm Being Righteously Pissed Right About Now
I was in the mall shopping in a record store and holding my new Rob Zombie CD Past, Present & Future (with bonus DVD and 36 page booklet and several previously unreleased items!!!) when two rent-a-cop mall guards come in the store and accost this couple in West Virginia t-shirts. I overhear some crap about them having to leave the store and the mall because of something being "offensive". The guy tries to ask a couple of questions and gets an immediate shut down by the r-a-c who just repeats, louder this time, that they have to leave...now.
"Who's it offensive to?" The woman he's with asks. She gets no answer. Of course, my activist hackles are raised at this point. I see the guy's shirt. It says "West Fuckin' Virginia". That's what they're getting so bent out of shape over. I was pissed for him, and said something to that effect--"This is over a shirt?!" But they were out the door and gone before I knew it. If I had been a little less confused, I think I would've followed them out and raised a little hell on their behalf.
I think "West Fuckin' Virginia" is a modern version of what people love to say around here: "West By God Virginia". It's a comment toward the fact that sometimes people still confuse us with Virginia. It also goes back to breaking away from Virginia during the Civil War. No, by God, we're going to be WEST Virginia.
I don't see how this guy's shirt was any lewder than most of what everyone else was wearing. Some old biddy probably saw a black couple with dreds with a curse word next to her blessed state name and figured they were blaspheming. I highly doubt a good old boy wearing the same thing would've been called on it. I thought it was interesting too that the rent-a-cops immediately read this guy's questioning of their authority as aggression. He was only asking why. I would've been screeching "What the fuck?!"
Where the hell does this idiot cop think he bought the damn t-shirt in the first place?
--Virgil
posted by contemplator at Tuesday, September 12, 2006
9 Comments:
Well, if there's no Walmart in town, one could hope that the label said "Made in West Fucking Virginia".
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Reminds me a little of this.
Parlez Vous Francais?
((darn it won't let me paste (hotlink)images)) :(
http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/0/9/bagtag.gif
Translation and story!
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(When I received an email of this, I couldn't believe whoever made it, didn't realise Canada was bilingual.)
Preach it sista!
There's one Walmart in town, and we're getting a Super Walmart and a Sam's Club (another type of Walmart). We're all about the Walmart here, or at least we will be when it opens.
But they seem to be having trouble finding enough people to even work at the regular stores in town. There's help wanted signs everywhere, but everybody thinks they're worth more money that what's being offered, I guess.
mad dog: yeah, I mean what are the rent a cops going to do? Call the real cops if they don't comply?
My only sticking point with your Walmart argument is that around here, people can't really afford to shop any where else. So it's a real godsend (pardon the pun) to them. It's hard to argue with your budget.
And I HEART Rob Zombie. Only two of my kids in my freshmen classes knew who he was. (Yes, I brought Rob Zombie in for show and tell. :D ). It's hard for me to pick which song is my favorite. I like most all of them. And I just love his style. "Dragula" gets me all excited every time I hear it. :D
Ah yes, all those 'necessities' you get at Walmart. :)
Combining the American Dreams of Egalitarianism and Capitialism to ensure cheap, meaningless, disposable crap is available for all.
Bambi--have you ever been in a WalMart? There's "necessities" like toilet paper, food, cheap diapers, baby food...you know. The stuff people can do without. :)
Which folks were able to get long before Wal-Mart existed. However, I do not put all of the blame on the people.
The truth is that Wal-Mart virtually shoves its way into each town, has ridiculously low prices that make it impossible for the local businesses to compete, driving them out of business. Since the local businesses are gone, many of the people are left unemployed; often a career at Walmart is their only desperate option left.
More lately, Walmart has been creating super-walmarts, that serve groceries and other things, driving other corporations out of business. It is a malevolent parasite that does no benefit to the community, the people or the nation. The truly sad irony is that they could not have done it without the greed of the average american.
The Average American is a greedy, short sighted fool who rarely considers the long term effects of his or her actions. Why do you think the lottery is so popular? Why do you think powerball is so popular? Or Las Vegas? Because so many americans are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the lottery with the hope of winning millions of dollars, that's why.
The people who continue to play them are so driven by greed, they don't even take into consideration that their chances are only one in a billion; buying a hundred lottery tickets does not even come close to bridging that gap.
Wal-Mart takes advantage of such rabid greed, and lures the people into their stores with their lower prices. The problem becomes far worse, but favors them more after the small towns have been destroyed, and the people who live there have a poorly paying job or no job at all. Under such circumstances, the lower prices are virtually impossible to resist.
Wal-Mart only designated the placement of the headstone. It has America dig its own grave.
No, folks weren't always able to get along before WalMart existed.
I'll say this much, and then I'll drop it. I don't like the way WalMart shoves out smaller businesses. But I will say this.
When Dante was a baby and I was working full time and barely able to pay the rent, WalMart kept me off of welfare. I could get a box (not a pack, a full box) of diapers for $20, I could get his formula at a reasonable price, and their pharmacy was the cheapest one in town for the same product. I could buy clothes for Dante that didn't break me up considering how quickly he grew out of them anyway. I could buy groceries that were cheaper than any other store in town.
At one point in my life, I literally didn't have two dimes to rub together at the end of the week. If it weren't for WalMart, I would've had to have gotten food stamps and a check, because we just could NOT have made it.
Just keep in mind that some people have the choice whether or not to shop at WalMart. Other people do not. And that doesn't make them "greedy."
Again, I'm not criticizing the poor. My real target is folks who actually can afford to shop somewhere else, like my father. I am sorry that you had to go through so much trouble, living on the edge while trying to raise a son.
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