By The Message On His Shirt We Shall Know Him

My daughter and I went to Costco today and the place was packed. A Saturday is not the best day to shop at Costco because that's the day most families fill up for the week or month.

As we walked through the front door, amidst children of all ages, directly in front of me was a young man about mid 20's wearing a t-shirt with "MOTHERFU..ER" in huge letters on his back. Mind you, the whole word was there for all to see, not just my censored version of it. I've become so sick of how spineless most of us have become in not confronting these ignorant jerks that I just had to go up to him.

Ignoring my daughter's whimpered, "oh, no", I strode up to him and asked him if it bothered him that there were children around to see what was written on his shirt. I swear it was like looking into the eyes of a zombie, no reaction whatsoever. He just gazed at me blankly. I shrugged and said that I guess it didn't bother him at all and turned to walk away.

Now he came to life just long enough to tell me to "fu.. off!". I walked away knowing he was a lost cause. Thinking about it now I should have walked right back and demanded an apology but my daughter probably would have slunk out and driven home without me.

She was shocked when I told her what he'd said but what can you expect from a brain dead individual who would walk around in public with that shirt? I sure didn't expect anything better from him but I wanted him to know that not everyone in this world is so passive that they'll stay silent when they really should speak up.

By being passive we've allowed public decency to drop to a dangerous low. If there had been only adults around I would still have thought him an imbecile but I'd have said nothing. What spurred me was the sight of innocent young children around who I strongly believe shouldn't be subjected to those words.

This young man chose to wear a blatantly obnoxious shirt to draw attention to himself. But, instead of "MOTHERFU...ER", he only needed to wear a shirt with "BRAINDEAD LOW-LIFE" written on it and we still would have know what he was.

I did notice that I was the only one who said anything to this man and I wondered if maybe I'm out of touch and no cares anymore if their children see this kind of filth. I'm hoping the reason no-one else spoke up is because they hadn't seen the shirt. I'm hoping someone else cared.

There was a young woman with him and I wondered how desperate she must be for male company if she didn't mind being seen with him wearing that shirt. I thought of how we're known by the company we keep...and the messages we display on our shirts.