I got another one!

[fudge stripe cookays]

Today I was shopping for a few items of vacation-wear during my lunch break at work.

The woman checking out next to me in line looked typical for the area. Collin County-- very Repub, the frosted hair and Texan Repub lady garb. I even caught her looking sideways at the button I had pinned on my purse, and which I wear proudly:

"Don't use religion as an excuse for your hatred."

She reached over and kind of fingered it, and said, "Now what do you mean with this button?"

Instantly ready for a confrontation, I braced myself for the inevitable and dived in, ready for a fight, right there in Lane Bryant.

"I mean that I'm sick and tired of the Religious Right telling my friends who they can and can't fall in love with and marry, and telling me if I can have sex and who with, or what our children should be learning in school....THAT'S what I mean."

"Good for you," she said, and smiled real big. :wow:

What a relief! She and I began talking about all kinds of stuff. Her son was also involved with Dean, so we bonded over that. And while we stood and blabbed, the salesgirl listened intently to us.

The first lady went ahead and left after she and I had quite a chat, and the salesgirl began asking me lots of questions. She was already registered to vote, but I shared lots of new stuff with her-- the name of Gloria Feldt's book to go find a copy of, a True Majority pen (which she thought was REALLY cool), and my phone number, e-mail etc, since she is not working on Sunday. She got a big fat invitation to join us at our Outfoxed party.

And as I stood there on my soap box, telling her about the Texas Republican platform that talks about "the myth of separation betwen church and state" and declaring the U.S. a "Christian nation," her eyes bugged, and she got very interested.

I finally got my purchases and prepared to leave and ANOTHER lady, standing to one side who'd been hovering, touched my arm as I headed towards the door, and said "Amen!!" and smiled. We shook hands as well and did the high five thing.

It was a good day at the Lane Bryant!

[Richardo]

1. Nice story, FSC. Good work!

I'm a True Majorityite myself - just joined last month after a "fellow traveler" at the bookstore clued me in. :thumbsup:

Amazing how the general public is sometimes more gratifying to interact with than some of our DU 'colleagues', innit? ;)

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. Yeah, amazing how that works, huh?

;)

[bigwillq]

2. Great story!

Thanks for sharing.

I really enjoy when you bond with a complete stranger over an issue close to heart.

On the day of the primary here in Connecticut, I was at a swimming meet for work and went outside to have a smoke and another young guy my age (26 or so) was also smoking.

The place where the swim meet was held was at the college I attended and it was being used as a polling place.

The guy and I started talking and he was also a Dean supporter. We talked for the five or so minutes that we were smoking and then we went on our way.

Two days later, I was at the local bar (it happens to be a gay bar) I attend often and the guy walks in. I never saw him there before (I go there often) and we clicked again and now we hang out every once in a while!

[RubyDuby in GA]

3. Holy cow

Shopping and having more than one person in the store who agrees with you. It was indeed a good day. :D

[johnnie]

4. That gives me shivers!

In Texas too...I love it. These are the stories that give me hope. Thanks for sharing.

[RubyDuby in GA]

5. Oh and another thing

Totally love your name...
Nice oddtodd reference.

[8-Ball]

6. That's good news to hear.

Thanks for making my day. :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. I just LOVE reading stuff like this

Good on ya :thumbsup:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

18. What's the diff between Good on ya and Good FOR ya?

I see it said a lot, and have no idea what that means.
Duckie

[trof]

8. "Each one bring one."

and
"By the yard, it's hard. By the inch, it's a cinch."
are two of my favorite sayings.
Keep it up.
Just one at a time.
:thumbsup:

[Lisa0825]

9. Good for you!!!!!:-)

way to go!!!

:yourock:

[jedicord]

11. Doesn't it feel GOOD!

Recently I've decided to just speak up. I did so the other day with a fellow employee who was griping about insurance premiums going up and coverage going down. "That's why I vote Democratic" and come to find out, in this Texas company - so does he!

Just this morning the guy at the gas station I go to for coffee in the morning told me he was going to find out if he loses his job in August due to a Chevron merger (or something), I said "We need a new President" and he said "hell yeah!".

Little things like that have come to show me that I'm not alone - just scared to speak out in a mostly Bush loving environment.

No more!

[Richardo]

12. I had two separate folks come up to me in the parking lot...

...and ask me where I got my "Anyone But Bush" and "Quagmire Accomplished" stickers. Two in NW Houston - both women. Pretty good sign!

[jedicord]

13. Kerry/Edwards need to come to Texas...

and come to Texas now! I truly believe, if Texans are informed and energized enough, he could take Bush's "home" state electoral votes away from him!

One can dream, can't one?

[Richardo]

14. Edwards *killed* in his address to the State Convention

You're right - more Texans need to hear him. Kerry got a great reception on Earth Day, too.

Favorite Edwards line from the convention address (paraphrase):

"We've got a guy in the White House who can't think of ONE mistake he's made in the past four years. Are you kiddin' me? I can think of TEN mistakes I made since I got out of bed this morning!"

[GOPisEvil]

15. Damn! You rock!!!!

That is awesome news!

[Maestro]

16. Yeah!

@Gopisevil

Love the banner. How'd you make it?

[GOPisEvil]

17. I stole it!

http://tdp.virtual.polycot.com/getinvolved/downloads/

[Pithlet]

19. That's great

Good for you for wearing your views proudly. I love the messge on your button.

If that ever happened to me, I'd be over the moon. I live in a very conservative area, and whenever I see a glimpse of liberalism anywhere it makes my day.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

20. And WHO doesn't love Lane Bryant???

I just got two nice bras there for $32 total. Have to get them there because very few other places carry "big bazonga" sizes for bras.

What a great experience!!!! Just goes to show......WE'RE EVERYWHERE!!!!

(Evil cackle. Hope your friend comes!)

I once gave some Dean info to the Domino's pizza delivery person. It was a girl. I gave her an extra big tip and some Dean literature and she kind of squealed and said she and her parents are big Dems and it was so nice to see others! I invited her to meetups. That was a while back. I need to start doing that with Kerry stuff. And they love the big tip!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

21. I also want to add

to all you liberals and Dems out there in conservative areas: FIND A WAY to introduce your opinions, whether it is a button, shirt, bumper sticker, ANYTHING. I knew a guy who, during the primaries, bought a hell of a lot of Dean stickers and put them on every piece of outgoing mail he sent out. I gave big tips and literature to the pizza delivery person. I took my daughter over to a friend's house to play and the cleaning people were there trying to clean around all these kids and one of the ladies saw my bumper sticker as she was coming in and said in broken English "You no like Boosh?" and I said "Nope, can't stand him, voting Kerry." That led to a very painful (because of slight language differences) but wonderful conversation. The lady whose house she was cleaning is a big "boosh" supporter! I love it!

So speak out, even if it is quietly. It gives hope to those out there to afraid to speak out!!!!

[fudge stripe cookays]

22. Thanks ya'll!

Yep. Made my day.

3 in one store. In DALLAS!! How cool is that? I hope my new friend makes it too!

I was so INTO this last summer. Like Moonbeam said-- I found a way to introduce the topic in ANY conversation. But it took me awhile to build my momentum back up after Dean dropped out.

Now, I wear my "Our Worst Nightmare" button (Bush with Alfred E. Neumann's face on it) to purposely get comments.

Any of you nervous about doing it here in Texas, BE BRAVE!! Dallas is one of the most conservative areas of the state, and I have never been hassled (roughly) about anything that I wear, or my bumper stickers. Gotten a couple of snarky comments, yeah. But those I can shake off.

I wear my "Up Yours Bush, I'm keeping my right to choose!" T-shirt to the grocery store in Rowlett, fer cryin out loud! The comments that I DO get are from nervous Dems so happy that someone is being brave. If we were all brave, we could outnumber the in-your-face Jesus fishes and ubiquitous giant flags!

JUST DO IT!!
Lane Bryant rules!
FSC

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

23. Yep

I have NEVER even ONCE gotten a snarky comment or anything from shirts or buttons or bumper stickers, etc. What I do get are grocery store checkers saying "hey I love that button", etc.

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. OK. ONE snarky comment.

I had gone next door to where I work to get signed up at their fitness center. They opened their facilities to our employees for $15 a month, which is a great deal.

So I went over the day of the big grand opening, and 2 guys from my company were there. Brothers. And I had my denim jacket on, forgetting my small Latino Dean button.

At one point he looked over and said, "Ugh....I'll have to lose some respect for you now that I see you're a Democrat."

And with EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING I wanted to say "Well, that's better than being completely arrogant and lacking compassion for anyone besides yourself. It's all about the taxes, isn't it asshole??!!"

Instead I just said, "A proud Democrat. You can think whatever you want."

Since it was sort of work-related. Butthole.

FSC