Last Saturday, a group was registered to set up a table outside of the library to register voters. The PIC (Person In Charge) was the children's manager. I like her a lot, even though she tries to Jedi-mind-trick me into joining the "Dark Side of Youth Services;" she's very laid-back which is why I can relate to her so well. It was a pretty crappy day so she let them come inside the lobby, mistake #1.
During their first hour inside the lobby, a patron on their way out stopped by the table and asked who they represent. They only had a sign that read, "Register to Vote," that is all, no political aligned propaganda anywhere. They weren't pushing any agenda, just asking folks if they were registered, and if not, would they like to take a moment to register. Apparently, this one patron was very insistent and kept pestering them until they mentioned that they were from a certain organization formed/vouched for by Obama --- mistake #2. If you want to keep your friends, you don't discuss religion or politics. Well, this set the patron off and they went ballistic. "I don't want you in my library, blah blah blah." The PIC went out there and tried to diffuse it, but the patron was full on ape-ish. The children's manager was completely frazzled by this altercation and when she came back to my desk to tell me what happened I could hear it in her voice. This is the woman who called me out to the desk because she didn't know how to handle a homeless patron, I can't be mad at her, she's been completely coddled at this cushy branch.
The patron stated that she was "going to come back to the branch to make sure they were gone." Okay, we aren't in the middle of nowhere, so that couldn't mean she would have come back with a bunch of her shotgun-wielding uncles and cousins --- it most likely meant her team of lawyers. The voter registration group ended up calling it quits right after and the patron never came back.
The whole mess just reinforces my feelings about hating politics in every single form.
I'm not sure how this even turned into an argument.
ReplyDeleteAll they had to say was "we are just here to register people who wish to vote." and continue repeating that rather than give in to ridiculous questioning.
I know right, well apparently these geniuses were told in their training that if someone keeps asking "Who they rep" they are supposed to tell them. I would have said "Kodos."
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