For my birthday, Emily and I decided to snag a bite to eat at a local favorite hole in the wall called “Grandstand’s Burgers”. But after eating, I had more than a full stomach… I also had a headache from the ridiculous blabbering of a ‘conservative’ woman that was sitting next to us. I don’t want to make this note sound like she was a brilliant beacon of conservative hope, because she thought Emily was my mother, and that Emily was taking me (her son) out for lunch… But I also don’t want to make her seem like a complete asinine fool, as she was spitting out the bullshit rhetoric that most conservatives do.
The television above us was tuned to CNN and the news of course was about the earthquake in Haiti. The first thing out of the woman’s mouth is, “just burn the bodies” in a cold callused voice. She started rampantly complaining to me and anyone that would lend an ear about how much sending troops to Haiti is going to cost the taxpayer and how much she doesn’t care about Haiti. She then went on to talk about the navy seals that are on trial for allegedly punching a terrorist in the face after detaining him, and all the reasons that Obama is bad. She even said at one point, “Obama reads too much Marx… Ya know who Marx is don’t ya?”, to which I replied, “yeah”.
I was desperately trying to get out of the conversation but she kept trying to suck me back in. I decided to try to eat as quickly as possible. I thought that as long as I kept my mouth full I wouldn’t have the temptation to rip into this lady for being a social moron.
The lady continued to whine about how Obama was bringing the terrorist leaders here to the courthouse just blocks away from the capital and how much that was going to cost our nation. She whined about how the US is the only country that is sending aid to Haiti and how it’s ridiculous that we are out there. She even was whining about how Haiti was going to be all over the news for weeks. Who cares? If you watch the news you are lied to anyways, if you don’t like it just turn it off.
But the thing that really stood out in my mind, was when she said, “Obama can afford to send over ten thousand troops but can’t afford to heat homes in America where people are freezing to death! There’s something wrong with America!”. At this point in the meal I was finished. I was ready to leave and not have to listen to this lady’s pestering voice anymore.
As we left the restaurant I couldn’t help but smirk and laugh as I said goodbye to everyone there. Outside I began to verbally express my displeasure with our company at lunch to Emily and she agreed the lady was absurd and possibly not fit to operate a motor vehicle.
Now the real kicker, and I don’t particularly care either way in all honesty, is that this burger lady incessantly moans to everyone she comes in contact with. She probably tells everyone she knows that Obama’s health care plan is socialism at its finest and rails against the bill, but my issue is: If you don’t support universal health care, why are you so riled up that Obama is not paying for the heat in all American households? This seems to be a logical disconnect for the “conservative”. The idea that we should not render aid to anyone else until we provide for the welfare of our own, in the form of heating their homes is absolutely outrageous. It’s perfectly acceptable to her for Obama to pay for everyone’s heating bill for the entire winter, but you try to give somebody a free medical visit and it’s like you are wearing a Che Guevara shirt while waving a Chinese flag and saluting a statue of Marx.
Now don’t misunderstand, I am not in favor of universal health care. But I’m also not in favor of heating all Americans’ homes for free either. Why does it matter if we send relief to a disaster ruined country? How does this equate to providing something absolutely free to Americans which they are not entitled to?
In America people can work to provide money for the basics in life like heating a home and drinking water, but in Haiti right now, what can you do for money? Where are you going to get fresh water? How are you going to receive shelter from the weather? Where are the basic necessities for sustained life?