#204: Disgust In Margaritaville

I'm a pretty positive person. Even in the midst of stressful situations I try to find the good in what is going on around me. I'm also a pretty mellow person. I don't care, for example, if the sheets match the pillowcases or if the towels match the wash cloths. Such trivialities are unimportant to me. I'm also pretty slow to anger.

Except in situations like tonight.

I was to meet a friend of the family for dinner at Perkins, one of our favorite restaurants. A major reason we meet there so often is because of the staff that we have become friends with and with whom we enjoy talking about their school courses, a broken down car they laugh about, and about their relationships with the boyfriend of the moment or the husband.

Tonight, as we approached the restaurant, one of the waitresses was arguing with her husband in the parking lot. Not the first such altercation. In fact, she's about ready to divorce him, no longer able to handle his verbal abuse and neglect.

I should mention that both my friend and I are former law enforcement officers and two men who believe deeply that women should be treated like ladies, not as verbal abuse targets or physical punching bags.

We each sensed an unspoken understanding that, whether she wanted us to or not, we were going to intervene, and we did, telling him in no uncertain terms that his behavior toward her was to stop immediately. He began to argue that she was HIS wife and he could treat her as he wanted.

That was the wrong thing to say to two guys who would have taken pleasure at that moment in hurting him. He was made to clearly understand that such behavior was unacceptable and if we heard from her that he took our encounter out on her physically, that his next meal would be served behind bars.

He muttered a few choice curse words and stalked off.

The waitress (server, I know), had tears in her eyes as she thanked us and told us he was angry because she had moved out after telling him she was tired of his abuse. Good for her. No person, be they man, woman or child, deserves to be treated in such a manner. At least for the time being she will stay with a girlfriend while she decides whether or not to file for divorce.

Hers is simply one story in one town in one state in the country, the world even, where people are treated without respect and dignity by people who supposedly love them.

But it is one story that has two guardian angles watching over the situation.

Hey, Jimmy Buffet, I dig mellow Margaritaville, and am slow to anger, but not when another person is treated like dirt.