Parking Lot Justice

To the 'Concerned Customer' at Lowes:

Hey you--yeah, YOU.  I heard the way you berated the cashier to your young adult son.

"She didn't even look me in the eye.  Did you see that?  I shoulda told her my eyes are up HERE."

Hearing this come out of your disgusting, angry, gruff mouth as we loaded our kids and items into our car, my husband knew exactly what was about to happen as I started to follow you....  Hey Bud, wanna see where MY eyes are????  Grabbing my hand and pulling me back to our car, Shawn shook his head at me.  Not in front of the kids.

Thinking as my boys' mother first, I wondered if this cashier could have autism, or another developmental disorder that prevents, and/or hinders eye contact.

Next, thinking as the wife of a man who lost his mom to domestic violence, and a friend to several women who have been victims of domestic violence, I wondered if this cashier was so intimidated by your behavior, she was rendered incapable of looking you in the eye.  

Along similar lines, I wondered if she was too shy or too introverted to be able to meet your eyes.

I returned to thinking as a mother.  This cashier could possibly have had a sick child at home who left her tired and worried, a newborn, bills to pay and not enough money to pay them, or any number of other stressors.

And finally, maybe she was just sick of dealing with customers who dole out your kind of crap.  She's been abused so much in her line of work that it's just not worth giving you the time of day anymore. But, she has bills that need paying, so she clocks in every day, looking forward to that one customer who stops to pay her some respect.

That could've been you that day, but instead, you thought the world should revolve around you.

Pay close attention, because this is also what you are teaching your son--granted, what you've most likely already taught him, and how you've raised him.  I daresay you might've even raised him abusively, and allowed him to see you treat his mother that way.

Yes, I'm making some assumptions about you.  It's not very nice of me to do that.  I'll be honest, I didn't feel like a very nice person towards you.  I think I still don't.  Part of me wants to understand you, and part of me hopes you haven't always been like that, that you didn't raise your son this way, and treat your wife this way.  But what changed that makes it okay to treat a fellow human being this way now?  

I hope you will think about other people, and consider their feelings and emotions.  Consider wishing someone a great day, and asking her how her day is going.  Those two points of conversation change a lot for a person.  I hope at some point you are able to see the error of your ways, and correct them.  It may not be short little me angrily stomping after you with my husband stopping me, next time.

You cannot just abuse people like that.

Sincerely,
A Fellow Concerned Lowes Customer