Yard Sale Politics

Two Saturdays in a row I have had a yard sale. The reason for the sale is not the reason for this post however, I will just mention that the desperate need for money did spur us on to have two sales. How much did we make… about $90… how much do we still have… about $20. But we were able to do some things we weren’t able to do before hand, so there you go.

Last Saturday, we had a magician stop by our sale… he explained that he’s writing a book on how to be a math wizard by simply using your fingers as a master calculator. He actually showed us some of the calculation techniques… quite interesting. He then went on to show us a few magic tricks while his wife went on buying lots of our stuff… we were pleased. Several people bought children’s books (I’ve been compiling them for years now) and one lady, who is just moving to the area, bought our coffee table that we were hoping would disappear from our treasures. One family across the street came out to see us… we’ve been here two years and none of our neighbors greeted us when we arrived, so it was a little uncomfortable… but only for a few minutes. Her daughter bought my Japanese bathrobe that was really made in China and swears she will wear it to school.

Today the wife of the magician showed up again and just about forgot she had already visited us the week before… she is definitely a yard sale addict. She bought a few more books but her husband was not with her to entertain us this time around. We didn’t think we would get much action since we don’t have much to sell any more… but sure enough, we sold our couch to yet another lady who just moved into the area. Again, we were desperate to get rid of it as it was just another huge, heavy item to move from spot to spot in the garage. Yet another neighbor came out of the woodwork today and it turns out she moved in a year ago… and we didn’t even notice… so now I feel a bit like a heel. She bought a large rug for $5.00 and we chatted a while to get to know her.

But here is the point of this post… sorry for the long delay.

An man stopped by who was about 60 years old and we believe he was Latino. Now, I wouldn’t normally even include such detail but it is pertinent to this post. You see… he started talking about everything under the sun and I found him particularly interesting because he started saying things I didn’t expect in regards to politics. He had his hair slicked back and had a few large rings on his fingers. He wore a plain white T-shirt with a nice sized belly that sat over his oddly decorated blue shorts and, below that, his walking sandals. He looked the part of an old-time democrat… you know, before they became bigoted, selfish jerks. But I digress.

I do not recall what spurred the question but he said there are a lot of bad things going on… like Obama. I looked at him and he asked… “are you voting for Obama?”. I shook my head no and he said “I’m voting for McCain”. He mentioned that his family has always been hard-core democrats but that Democrats aren’t what they used to be and that they aren’t for the little guy the way they proclaim. This caught my attention because his appearance and the things he had said when he arrived led me to believe this man would feel the government owed him something. Why did I think that… I suppose it was a stereo-type reaction. He had a very strong accent and mentioned that he not only owns a home here but also one in Mexico where he plans to go when the winter arrives. He led me to believe, although not on purpose, that he would want Obama to be the president. I misled myself and this only proves to me that first impressions and our own stereo-typical thoughts are not always correct.

So I was fascinated with this man and just let him talk… and talk he did. He went on to tell me that Mexicans are hard workers because they are made to work at a very young age and it’s second nature for them. Americans are not made to do the same things so it’s not easy for us to compete with those coming from Mexico. He thinks it’s bad for America to hire illegals to do these jobs and then pay them such a low amount. He feels that Americans are NOT lazy and that paying illegals to do jobs that Americans can do is not smart.

He said he isn’t happy with what the Mexicans are doing to California and he feels that businesses are moving out and the state is broke due to the fact they work for such low pay and that so many of them are bringing horrible crimes to America. He knew of a man who came up from Mexico just to visit his family but while he was here, he had a heart attack. His family took him to the hospital where he had a $35,000 operation before he went back to Mexico… and didn’t pay a dime towards the bill. He asked me if I knew who was going to have to pay for it… I said yes… and he said “we will”. He is disgusted with the fact a person can move to California from any state (even move as an illegal from Mexico) and get a check, food stamps and medical coupons almost upon crossing the California border.

Rocky… yes, that is the man’s name… mentioned that several years ago when he was young he had to work in a glass factory. One day, the company hired a black man and Rocky was in charge of training him. After some time he went to his boss and explained that the new guy wasn’t going to work out because he couldn’t get the hang of it and when he was told what to do, he would get in Rocky’s face and challenge him. Rocky’s boss told said “what can I do Rocky… I can’t fire him or he will call discrimination”. Rocky’s response “so we have to carry this guy?” and his boss just told him yes.

Ironically, he was let go when he asked his boss for two weeks leave due to a family emergency but neglected to get paperwork done in the human resources department. The boss never passed on the word and the company assumed it was a voluntary quit and fired him. Yet… if another man won’t do his job right, they can’t fire him due to fear of discrimination lawsuits. Couldn’t Rocky have claimed discrimination? He isn’t white and isn’t that the only group who CAN’T yell discrimination and win?

Rocky swears he is not prejudice and made a big deal to tell me that even though I was mostly silent during the conversation and didn’t challenge him on anything… I just let him talk. He said he grew up and worked with black people (and he did specify black individuals for some reason) and therefore he wasn’t prejudice. I did not wish to argue that he could indeed be prejudice just due to the experience he had so many years ago at the glass factory because that would have been pointless.

Rocky said something like “Obama may be a black man, and I’m not prejudice against blacks, but McCain is older and the better choice”. So even this individual is struggling and feels he must preface with “I’m not prejudice” and point out the Obama is black.

He feels that Obama doesn’t have the experience to be president and that he likes McCain… one of the reasons is because McCain is a war hero and is older and, therefore in Rocky’s eyes, wiser. He was quite pleased by McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate and feels she’s going to do a great job… and he loved the fact she was originally from around our area.

I wondered before he said he liked Palin if he was going to be displeased that McCain chose a woman. On the contrary… he seemed quite pleased. The fact he was happy with McCain’s choice made ME feel happy because I have met people older than I am that do not have an open mind in any way at all when it comes to politics. So many feel that a person must be male, white and have a certain type of education. On the other hand, I do not feel that ANYONE should stand up and say “I am different than everyone else, so you must feel compassion for me and vote for me or everyone will think you’re prejudice or sexist”.

The fact is… if you are an American citizen, you can run for political office. I don’t care if you’re a man or woman… I don’t care what color your skin is or if you go to church every Sunday or once a year… these things are not my deciding factors. There are things I would not like… I would have a problem with electing a Satan worshiper, for instance… but I suppose he could still run for office.

The point is… people are surprising me. I keep thinking I am alone and that everyone out there thinks differently than me… that they think I’m a disease that needs to be eradicated. Turns out, there may be people who think that way, but there are so many others that don’t!!! The disease that needs eradicating is the one that seeps inside American citizens and turns them into America haters. I have no time for them… they do not belong in my country.