A man whom I recognized from two previous encounters was also leaving. He said, as an aside, "Poor KILLARY!" I ignored his obvious baiting but he continued by saying, "Oh, poor, poor KILLARY." I took the bait and responded, "Poor YOU; you lack originality!
He asked, contemptuously, "So how do you defend those e-mails?" I answered, "How do you defend Trump's producing his shoddy merchandise in foreign countries rather than employing Americans?" Laughing, he said, "But that's the American way!" I replied, "It's not MY American way." He countered by saying, "I bet that outfit you're wearing wasn't made in the U.S!" I said, "Oh, yes it was; in fact it was made right here in Fayette County; my mother made it for me." He said, "You're lucky your mother is still with you." I said, "Oh, no she's not but she made this in 1988 but good things last just like Hillary Clinton." I could tell that he was furious at having been one-upped and he was hurrying to get into his vehicle.
I said, "Hey, wait--wait--you still owe me that $100 you bet me in 2011." He looked dumbfounded and said, "I don't know what you're talking about." I answered, "How could you forget? it happened right here in front of the Post Office." He shrugged and I said, "You confronted me about collecting signatures for the SB5 campaign and you said that the issue would fail and I told you I would bet." He said that he did not recall the incident. I said, "Don't you remember--I asked you how much money your wife had let you bring with you that day--and you agreed on $100."
He climbed in his car as I was saying, "I called you the day after the election to remind you that you owed me, but you hung up on me; that was just bad manners!"
See my BLOG article from 2011 about the confrontation:
OBSTREPEROUS
OHIO COLLECTS MORE THAN 716,000 SIGNATURES
As we are winding down the campaign to collect signatures for the referendum to repeal Senate Bill 5, I am pleased to report that in the two months and twenty events which we have staged, I have had only two incidents of people being unprofessional.
Outside of the Hike For Hospice event, we had set up table and chairs to collect signatures. A local car dealer came to the table and asked, in a loud voice, "Who gave you permission to do this?" I crossed my arms and said in a very quiet voice, "As long as we maintain access and egress and do not hinder passersby, we are within the law and do not need permission." He asked, in an even louder voice, "Who gave you a permit?" I answered, still in a quiet voice, "As I stated previously, sir, as long as we maintain access and egress and do not hinder passersby, we are within the law and do not need a permit." He must have been disappointed that his attempted intimidation was unsuccessful. He shouted, as he mounted his large truck, "I'll see about this!" I laughed and said, "Tell Mr. Denen to stop by and sign!" Later, a participant in the Hike called me and said, "The women over here at the registration table are talking and one of them said, "Well, SHE says she has the right to be there!" I said, "Tell them to capitalize the "S" on she!" We did not have a visit from any authorities as he had threatened.
The second incident occurred a week later outside of the U.S. Post Office when a man approached the table where a friend and I were set up to collect signatures for the petition, and said, "I wanna see your permit!" I answered, very quietly, "Sir, as long as I maintain access and egress and do not hinder passersby, I do not need a permit." He continued, "I checked with the police and this is solicitation and that is against the law." I replied, "Perhaps you should check with the boss of the police--the City Manager--and by the way, the City Manager's wife signed my petition." He stated that his wife had been there earlier in the day and we had "solicited" her. I said, "No, I know who your wife is and she was merely asked if she had signed and whether she wanted to sign; obviously there was no solicitation."
He became very agitated and said, "You people put yourself above all others and think you're better than everybody else." I replied, "Sir, your saying "you people" is a ridiculous generalization; you are making assumptions without any basis in fact; you do not know me nor do you know anything about me so you're just being totally illogical." He said, incongruously, "You don't know nuthin' about me neither!" I answered, "And I have no desire to know anything about you but I won't be making any assumptions about you." He pointed to his
polo--type shirt with the name of a business embroidered there and said he was the owner of the business. I did not respond and he became very irate and said, "You think you're better than everybody else." I ignored him once again. He then threatened to go to the "cops"; I said, "Go right ahead, but you're being disingenuous because you said you'd already been to the cops." He said, "Oh you think you're smarter than me using big words!" I answered, "Disingenuous? that's a little word in my family; go home and look it up." He said, "You're so smart; you won't think you're so smart when the cops come!"
He continued his rant and I said, "Sir, you need to leave because you are being quite OBSTREPEROUS!" He said, "That's not even a word." My friend who had stood up, interjected, "Yes it is; she's the best sesquipedalian I know." I said to my friend, "Oh, what was the word of the day today--OBTEST?" She and I laughed and she said, "Yes, that's it." I chuckled and said, "Thou doest OBTEST too much, sir.", being quite proud of my little Shakespearean pun.
He moved toward his car, but returned and said, "You're gonna lose." I answered, "So, how much money did your wife let you bring with you today?" He asked, "What does that mean?" I answered, "Because that's how much money I'll bet that we will win." He said, very condescendingly, "How about $100?" I said, "Hand it over to my friend here; she'll keep both mine and yours." He just stormed away. My friend actually called the police to file a complaint.
When I went home and related the incident, my brother asked, "Was he packing heat?" That certainly gave me pause for thought. I'll still be collecting signatures until June 29, but I WILL NOT engage in any more contretemps, especially knowing about the crazy gun laws in Ohio. I am sincerely grateful for all of the well-mannered people in Fayette County who declined to sign the petition, but more than that, I am grateful to the people who signed as Fayette County has more than 3 times the needed 3%.
WE ARE OHIO!
If you like learning new words, check out the "Word Of The Day" website by CLICKING HERE.
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