Stories from the Streets - Liberty Oriented Anecdotes from T-Town
Posted on August 21st, 2008 by bosco Tags: Add new tag, education, racism, Ron Paul, TrentonI spend a decent amount of time on the streets of Trenton, mowing the grass, picking up trash, talking with neighbors, biking around, harassing squirrels etc. I manage to collect some interesting stories and meet weirdos (probably because I am one). Anyway here are two such stories that occured in the past three days:
I have a neighbor that walks his pitbull past my house every couple of days. He’s a large white man who grew up not liking black people but kept it to himself mostly. He went to prison and became an evangelical racist. I think he may be affiliated with a prison group, such as Aryan Nation, but I’m not sure and I don’t really want to ask. Anyway he walked past the house a proceeded to ask:
“Ready for school to start again?”
I responded, “Yeah, time to fight the good fight once more.”
His reply, “You know they keep taking my money but it seems all the kids end up behind the courthouse or under the ground.”
My reply, “Yeah, we’re undergoing an education crisis. The kids don’t want to be there and they don’t want to learn what we’re teaching. It’s unfortunate.”
His reply, “I know why that is.”
My reply, knowing what he thinks the problem is, “It’s systemic. There’s tons of reasons. The problem is you can’t just fix one and expect it to go away. Personally I think compulsory education is stupid and the way we fund the schools is an affront to people who disagree with our schooling methods.”
His reply, “No it’s because…” <racist rant concerning evolution and certain people who “never made it out of africa”. Also there was something in there about BET>
So hopefully my neighbor got something out of it before he launched into his rehearsed diatribe. It’s almost as if everyone, even the most screwed up people, can clearly see the problems. It’s the causes that people disagree about.
OK, second story. I’m biking home from the post office when I roll up next to a car with a Ron Paul sticker. I look in the car and yell, “Woo hoo Ron Paul”. The guy looks me up and down, mind you I need a haircut so bad my hair sticks out of my helmet and I was wearing a T-shirt with a vomiting clown on it, and then proceeds to say, “Yo” and stare straight ahead.
5 Responses to “Stories from the Streets - Liberty Oriented Anecdotes from T-Town”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
andrewmartinek:
A gentleman I’ve been arguing with about the war on drugs, constitutional limitations of government and freedom.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I’d have to ask for clarification on what “tempering” the approach to drug legalization entails. Is he pro-legalization and arguing over how it should be approached (ie. pro-freedom vs. pro-drugs) or is he against legalization at this moment? Or does he just think Ron Paul supporters are pot heads?
August 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Ah, I just read the whole thread. Much clearer now.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 am
I’m impressed. It’s not easy arguing such topics on YouTube comments with limited character usage. Trying to reply to all of the subthreads required using search feature in the browser to find sections of dialog in the “you got a comment” emails i received.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I’m engaged in a similar correspondence, albeit much slower via snail-mail, with Rush Holt. I’m going to ask his permission to reprint it on the blog.
I think limited character length or talk-time are great ways to debate. I try very hard to keep things short and sweet.