On my afternoon run through City Park (here in gorgeous Sarasota, Florida), I witnessed something pretty startling: two old men, fighting and screaming horrible things at one another in the middle of the road. While hiding behind a SUV in a nearby parking lot, I'm fairly certain I was able to figure out what caused the fight, so allow me to unfold the scene.
Earlier on my run, I happened to notice a group of elderly people - most looked like they were in their mid-70's and on up - standing along the side of a busy road that cuts past the marina. They were all holding signs that I couldn't read, but even before I had reason to be concerned about an ensuing fight, I gathered that the signs were of a political nature. I even thought to myself when I first jogged by that the people holding the signs must be of a more of a liberal persuasion (mostly due to the fact that one of the ladies I passed was holding up two very gnarled-looking fingers in the peace sign, and several of the other people were swaying like they might be signing "All we are saaayyy-iiinnngg is give peace a chaaance...")
Anyway, on my way back past the marina, while listening to a very groovy tune on my iPod, I suddenly noticed a big fat Basset Hound dart several feet in front of me, and he looked rather upset. Next, I saw a very well dressed older gentlemen - wearing a buttery yellow cardigan over his lime green Polo shirt, along with tan golf shorts and a pair of boat shoes - dashing after the dog. The man seemed upset, so at first, I assumed he was frustrated with his dog. But the level of agitation seemed a little too high, and, I also noticed that he seemed to be shouting at someone over his shoulder. So I removed one earbud so I could hear what was going on, and that was when the first "F-bomb" landed right in front of me! (It came shooting over the top of a parked car and landed directly on the man in the yellow sweater, and suddenly, it was more than clear I was entering a verbal war zone!)
I eased my jog down to a walk and then tucked in behind a nearby truck and turned my iPod off. Then I peered over the truck and watched as the first well-dressed man - who now had his dog on a leash - started walking toward a second well-dressed man (who was wearing bright orange slacks and a purple Polo shirt). The man in the purple shirt was holding up a sign that said REPUBLICAN DEPRESSION: 1929-2008.
I'm not even sure what that means, exactly, but I did quickly gather he is not a Republican! But the verbal exchange between the two men didn't help me sort out the conflict much better. Yellow sweater man was shouting with his fist raised high in the air that the man in the purple shirt was an idiot and his stock broker was an idiot, too. The man in the purple shirt shouted back that the man in the yellow sweater was a pompous $%&* &$%# and that he didn't have a @&*$*$% clue about economics. The insults continued, but I was unable to ascertain the true crux of the argument. As the man in the purple shirt started to cross over closer to yellow sweater man and his Basset Hound, I could feel things were about to get ugly, so I slipped out from behind the SUV and made my way onto the sidewalk leading away from the road.
From a distance, I watched as purple man poked his finger at yellow man, and the two seemed to be spitting words and hurling insults with great heat. I felt a little shaky as I watched these two grown men, fighting like hopped up teenagers. I decided that I couldn't take any more - it actually made me sad to see two men (who were very likely grandfathers) fighting in the middle of the road. What has this world come to?
As I put my earbuds back into my ears, and pressed Play on my iPod, I couldn't seem to shake the electric spark in the air over politics and the economy in America. We are so polarized about how to handle things that even or most mature citizens are behaving badly. How are our children supposed to know how to behave when even their grandparents can't control their emotions?
As I sit here and blog about this unusual episode in my day, I can't help but wonder how we as Americans will ever get passed our differences. Things are just so big and seem to be so broken. Is it all worth arguing about? Well...I guess it's worth arguing about, but I'm not sure that's the answer. Maybe I'm more like the Basset Hound - I try not to get all tangled up in the arguments, and do my best to keep my slow, fat body out of the fray. I don't know... But I just thought I'd blog about it and see if that would help.
