My wife and I were shopping in our little town here on the south Oregon coast today (my days run into the next day!) and had an interesting conversation with an employee at one of the places we stopped at while out. We only know the employee through our visits to the business and we’ve never talked politics or anything of the like with her in the past, just small talk and the business at hand. I asked her how her day was going and she responded with “Much better than yesterday.” I asked what was so bad about yesterday and she proceeded to tell us about a man who came into the store with his wife to shop and while doing so, out of the blue he started going off about black people. She told us that he told her that “All ni—ers are criminals” and that she said “So you’ve met them all?” She said that she asked him that because it was the only thing that came to her mind at that moment. She didn’t tell us if he answered her as she was telling us that what he had said absolutely shocked her. She said he was foul-mouthed and used lots of racist slurs while mouthing off about other crap that he was pissed about.

My wife and I both expressed our disgust along with myself stating “Well, look who is our President.” When I said that she said that the man had told her that he was a Trump supporter, which came as no surprise to us. I told her that some conservatives suffer from what I call “Conservative Tourette’s” where they blurt out racist, misogynistic or whatever crap at inappropriate times/places and that some require no alcohol at all. She told us that the guy’s wife apologized to her, telling her that her husband had been drinking earlier that day. As the employee said, and we agreed; alcohol didn’t make him say what he did, it just lowered his inhibitions. She told us that she had to go in to the back room for a few minutes after the guy and his wife left because she was crying.

She went on to tell us that her sister voted for Trump and what really kills her is that they are Native Americans. She said that she recently asked her sister if she thinks Trump is doing fine and her sister said that he’s doing a good job. The lady told us that she wanted to grab her sister, shake her and ask her what exactly has he ever done that has been good. We talked a bit more as we were the only customers there at the time before leaving. She thanked us for listening to her and agreeing what the man did was horrible.

I was brought up with good manners and to think of others, as was my wife. Our children have been brought up to think the same way. When we are out in public we use good manners, are polite to others and look to have a good time. I can’t even imagine the embarrassment that man put his wife through at that store, it must have been absolutely horrible for her. I have never put my wife in that position, nor would I ever.

But then I’m not a drunken racist Trump supporter.