Real life conversations on the chair lifts or around the lifts.
"Utah is a sportsman's paradise and an alcoholic's nightmare."
"I don't know why any thriving city would ever want the Olympics."
Or when we would exchange pleasantries. The most common went like this:
"Where are you from?"
"Oklahoma."
"Oh."
Or the annoying. Two stoners (do they call them stoners anymore?) with us, never say a word to us, one is on his cell phone on the lift. "I will meet you at the bottom of the sunshine lift. The sunshine lift. [hangs up idiot to his right asks] "where are we meeting them." Conversation continues almost to the top. Sigh.
Worst. At the bottom, overheard two white guys telling a racist joke. I hurried out of earshot, giving myself the option to hope that this ended with, "and that is the most racist joke I have ever heard." Sigh.
2 comments:
Streak, This posting has been on my mind for two days (and you know if I can focus on one thing for two days, it made an impact). Why did you walk away from the racist joke rather than addressing the two people? Don't get me wrong - I would have done the same thing. But shouldn't we confront these incidents or least indicate that jokes like that are inappropriate and should be removed from public discourse? Again, I would have done the same thing, but I'm just wondering if there is anything more people should do in these situations. Conversely, given the right of "freedom of speech," do people have the right to say whatever stupid thing without nerds like us calling them out?
Yeah, I understand. And I don't know. In this case, I was walking by a conversation between two guys. But your basic question is a good one. Had I not been walking by, I probably would have stared at them or said something. Then again, I am hesitant to get into a discussion with racists. Not sure what good I can do there. Perhaps that is just cowardice on my part.
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