I was recently in a coffee shop and witnessed an unfortunate but all too common situation take place.
It's around 9am, the morning after a night of considerable drinking with a couple of friends who were from out of town. We've just ordered our coffees and are standing at the cream/sugar station topping off our drinks. As we replace the lids on our cups, a commotion comes from back in the line.
Causing this disturbance is a pompous older white man, wreaking of entitlement, going off on the barista. I observe the old guys chest begin to puff out as his tone of voice and obvious sense of righteousness grows. I also notice the barista shrinking down in a mix of embarrassment and the need to bite his tongue.
Having been on the receiving end of a similar tongue lashing myself in the past, I knew that sense of embarrassment and decided I had seen enough.
"C'mon sir is that really nessecary? It's pretty early to be yelling at someone like that don't you think? Why don't you just drink your coffee and move on, I bet you'll feel better when you do."
The kid behind the counter looks over at me with relief in his eyes and whispers 'thanks'.
With a bewildered expression on his face the old man leers over at me and replies, " I feel pretty good already. Probably better than you"
"I doubt it sir, I feel pretty damn good " I shot back.
Probably not used to being stood up to the old man grabs his coffee and mumbling under his breath brushes past me and out the door.
This kind of incident happens all too often and it needs to stop. Its our responsibility as a society to stop tolerating retail bullies like the guy in this story. If someone is working, trying to make a living, helping you and happens to make a minor mistake do us all a favor...DON'T BE A DICK about it because in effect you're holding all of humanity down.
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