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Here’s a cute little funny.  Enjoy!

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque.  It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up,  stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, “Good morning Alex.”

“Good morning Pastor,” he replied. Still focused on the plaque. “Pastor, what is this?”

The pastor said, “Well son, it’s a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.”

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Alex’s voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked, “Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:45?”

Pardon me while I experience the following emotions all at once:

- amazed
- shocked
- baffled
- angry

One could argue that I should not have to experience three of these because of the line of work I do and in all honesty, nothing should shock me anymore.  However, If you read this story, you can understand that this one might have gone to the next level.

KMBC-TV in Kansas City, MO is reporting that 22-year-old Keith Slater returned a pair of shoes purchased at Journeys at a mall in Overland Park, KS.  The reason for the return, he found a cheaper pair at a different store, as was his right since most price matching deals require you to bring stuff in writing, proving the lower price.

Long story short, the return was processed and when the guy looks at his receipt he sees under customer name, “Dumb Nigger.”  When you see the video through the link, you’ll see it bleeped out.  I own this webspace so I am telling you exactly what was typed.  The family went back to the store the next day because it was closed by the time they looked at the receipt.  Here is the part that pissed me off, the explanation.

From KMBC-TV: “Hoping to get answers about how the words got on the receipt, the Slaters returned to the store the next day. But they said they never got a full explanation, only that the employee entered a generic code. And it pulled up six or seven different choices, and the choice that she (the employee) chose was the very last choice,” said Slater’s father, Keith.”

A GENERIC CODE?!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  If that was the case, should someone had noticed this a lot sooner?  DUMB NIGGER A GENERIC CODE IN A NETWORKED CASH REGISTER?!  I am not buying that for the simple reason that the feds would have been all over that one.  That was just a retail manager inserting foot to mouth.  In addition, I can tell you from the many years I have worked retail, there is one generic customer name code, NOT SEVERAL!

I would get upset at this and call for a boycott of Journey’s, but there are several factors, including not being a widely read blog.  On top of that is the fact that boycotting several locations because of one jackass who decided to act out on their ignorance does nto solve the problem.  Now if the company decides to defend the jerk, yeah, absolutely boycotting them.  Thankfully this is just one jerk, although technically two if you count the idiot who said that there were several generic codes.

Who Are You?  I have been asked this question many times over in life and in many different ways.  I didn’t really pay too much attention to it until this week I suppose.  A couple of weeks ago, I pointed out that we have gotten to a point that we are now so partisan and so petty, we are not concentrating on what is best for the country, let alone ourselves.  George Washington warned us do not form politica parties, it would divide the nation…well, hate to say that he is right, but….

But have we really got to a point where we are are sectioning ourselves from each other.  The mentality of “you are either with us, or against us” seems to be dominating the mindset of the country today and it’s kind of sad.  First example I would like to point out is the conservatives on Capitol Hill who before they were voted out acted as if you did not agree with them you are unpatritic.  Next up are black people who acting like if you criticize or choose not to support Barack Obama, you are either a sellout or self-hater.  This line of thinking no matter who you are need to stop.  You are who you are.  You are the product of your upbringing and you are what you believe.

So let me ask you…WHO ARE YOU?  Whatever you are, be proud of it.