Careful the Things We Say

This is an account of something I witnessed that was unsettling. The two women were talking in audible voices, easy for others to hear. One woman was behind the register and the other accompanied by an adult male, was purchasing a large amount of items. Their conversation, which was lengthy, focused around declarations about the male gender, saying terrible and cruel things about men in great detail. I could not gather fully from their conversation why these ladies came to this decided conclusion about men but it was hard to hear. I looked with disbelief at them while the accompanying man quietly paid for the items. I glanced at the man in line behind me and felt I could not hold my tongue. I added a simple statement that men were wonderful and I am so grateful for their creation. The two women fell silent, gawked confusingly at me for a moment. The conversation shifted to the purchase, the man accompanying the other woman finished paying for the items and quietly said thank you as they left. Words are a free commodity, but to verbally obliterate an entire gender in public is a form of abuse and absolutely uncivil. 10/12/20 CIVILITY