"No Mas!"
I quit.
My office is next door to the break room at my workplace. During lunch today, I overheard some of my co-workers discussing their desire that the local government here in Nashville pass a law banning smoking in all restaurants and bars. To my knowledge there is no such legislation being discussed by any of the various government entities. My co-workers were discussing other cities that had enacted similar legislation and how they wish something similar would be instituted here.
I spent about 15 minutes bashing my head against the wall, but finally realized that was not going to help anything.
For the record, my co-workers did not champion this legislation for a noble reason, protecting the restaurant and bar workers, for example. They freely admitted they wanted to see such legislation passed for their own comfort and convenience. They see no problem using the power of government authority to satisfy their own desires.
It's frustrating, and I am tired of even trying to carry on rational discussions with irrational people. I am tired of being dismissed as a radical nut. I am tired of being marginalized by any number of tidy little terms or words. So, I quit.
As a parting shot, I offer one of my favorite stories about one of my heroes, the feminist/anarchist Voltairine De Cleyre:
De Cleyre was active during the time of the Haymarket Riot and the assassination of President McKinley. The primary blame for these actions was placed on anarchists. As a result, Senator Joseph R. Hawley made a public statement in 1902 that he would pay $1,000 "to have a shot at an anarchist." De Cleyre wrote a letter to Senator Hawley that contained the following compromise:
"You may by merely paying your carfare to my home (address below) shoot at me for nothing. I will not resist. I will stand straight before you at any distance you wish me to, and you may shoot, in the presence of witnesses. Does not your American commercial instinct seize upon this as a bargain? But if payment of the $1,000 is a necessary part of your proposition, then when I have given you the shot, I will give the money to the propaganda of the idea of a free society in which there shall be neither assassins nor presidents, beggars nor senators."
My office is next door to the break room at my workplace. During lunch today, I overheard some of my co-workers discussing their desire that the local government here in Nashville pass a law banning smoking in all restaurants and bars. To my knowledge there is no such legislation being discussed by any of the various government entities. My co-workers were discussing other cities that had enacted similar legislation and how they wish something similar would be instituted here.
I spent about 15 minutes bashing my head against the wall, but finally realized that was not going to help anything.
For the record, my co-workers did not champion this legislation for a noble reason, protecting the restaurant and bar workers, for example. They freely admitted they wanted to see such legislation passed for their own comfort and convenience. They see no problem using the power of government authority to satisfy their own desires.
It's frustrating, and I am tired of even trying to carry on rational discussions with irrational people. I am tired of being dismissed as a radical nut. I am tired of being marginalized by any number of tidy little terms or words. So, I quit.
As a parting shot, I offer one of my favorite stories about one of my heroes, the feminist/anarchist Voltairine De Cleyre:
De Cleyre was active during the time of the Haymarket Riot and the assassination of President McKinley. The primary blame for these actions was placed on anarchists. As a result, Senator Joseph R. Hawley made a public statement in 1902 that he would pay $1,000 "to have a shot at an anarchist." De Cleyre wrote a letter to Senator Hawley that contained the following compromise:
"You may by merely paying your carfare to my home (address below) shoot at me for nothing. I will not resist. I will stand straight before you at any distance you wish me to, and you may shoot, in the presence of witnesses. Does not your American commercial instinct seize upon this as a bargain? But if payment of the $1,000 is a necessary part of your proposition, then when I have given you the shot, I will give the money to the propaganda of the idea of a free society in which there shall be neither assassins nor presidents, beggars nor senators."