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October 3, 2005
7-11 Musings
Maybe there is hope for them yet.
It’s not everyday in life that I actually enter one of those stores, but yesterday found me doing just that. I was heading up to Lisa’s uncles cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon for a second day of outdoor activities that included chain saws, falling pine trees that had succumbed to the tenacious bark beetle, and a hydraulic log splitter. The decision to pull into that convenient store was based solely on a whim. There happened to be one perched at the entrance to the canyon and I decided to grab some Gatorade in anticipation of the exertion that was surely to come.
While I was grabbing my beverage from the reach-in cooler, a caught a glimpse of the back of a t-shirt being worn by a college age young lady and I thought the logo was intriguing. The shirt was dark blue with a huge white image of what looked unmistakably like a bucking bronco, or perhaps a braying ass, with the phrase “Save the Donkeys” in a circle surrounding the image. My immediate thought was, “Which donkey’s needed to be saved?” The only donkey’s I knew of that perhaps needed saving, from themselves, mind you, were Democrats. I got a chuckle from that until I the young lady walked up behind me in line to pay for whatever it was that she had come into the store to buy.
Without being too obvious, I stole a glance at the front of her shirt, where, placed strategically above her left breast was a circle about 4 inches in diameter made with the words “University of Utah College Democrats” It took everything I had not to bust out laughing. The first step in the recovery process is recognizing you have a problem in the first place. With that in mind, the shirt leads me to believe that the Democrats, at the college level anyway, discern their current dilemma.
Whose rights come first?
Needless to say, I was in a jovial mood on my way out the door and that mood lasted about 4 seconds as I was promptly involved in an encounter I had not wanted. When I pulled up to initially go into the store, there was a young man and young woman opening up a display case and preparing to erect a sign board. I paid them no mind going in, and after my discovery of the t-shirt, had forgotten them completely going out. That is until I heard “Excuse me, Sir. Do you vacation in Las Vegas?” Here I am, trying to unlock my car, holding a 32 oz Gatorade and some snacks, fully lost in the euphoria from inside the store, when I’m wrenched back to reality by what seems an innocuous question at best. I politely informed the young man that I wasn’t interested in anything he had to sell. He went on as if I hadn’t spoken at all and further asked “How about Park City? Do you vacation in Park City?” By that time, I had gotten my door opened, placed my belongings in the passenger seat and shot off a not as polite “No Thanks” as I sat down and closed the door. Right before I closed the door, I heard the young lady say “Geez” as if it was me that was being rude. As I drove off, heading up the canyon, I was questioning that young lady’s disdain at my refusal to hear their spiel. It was as she was offended that I hadn’t wanted to hear what they were entitled to sell. It got me thinking: At what point does a person’s right to speak supercede my right privacy? Does someone placing a booth on the sidewalk of a 7-11 grant them entitlement to accost every person who happens to walk by? Are the citizens compelled to listen? Whose rights come first?
As I understand it, one person’s rights cannot infringe upon the rights of others. I hadn’t asked for the intrusion of my right to privacy by the seller’s right to speak. So where does that young lady get off being offended? If anyone should have been offended, wouldn’t it have been me?
Posted by Jonathan at October 3, 2005 9:36 AM
Comments
Good thoughts....someone once said, "Your right to swing your fist, ends at my nose."
Posted by: Guy at October 4, 2005 6:08 AM