Hey guess what this is not a pain diary. It is about being poor and seeing prejudices at work in America. I am poor. I admit it. I owe way too freaking much money to way to many doctors and healthcare places like hospitals. Yes I have insurance but ti sure doesn't help when you have a $2,400 deductible and it sure doesn't help to have another $1000.00 deductible for drugs. I do have a 90/10 plan but that deductible is killer for me. I have a few chronic conditions so I see a lot of doctors. That quickly adds up to a lot of money going out and not too much coming in.
So there I was at my local Aldi. I love Aldi. They have great prices and the food with very very few exceptions is great. I pay a lot less for stuff there than anywhere else. It is less than a mile to my local Aldi so I am in there a lot. I know most of the cashiers and the managers. They even pay a decent wage to their cashiers. I believe it is $11.00 or $12.00 bucks an hour to start. Okay enough of the commercial for Aldi.
So there I was in line all my things on the conveyor belt waiting. I was 3rd in line. The older couple ahead of me were standing well back from the well dressed gentleman at the head of the line. I had seen him in there before. I had said hello when we almost banged carts. Hey it's a small store you do a lot of almost banging carts or saying excuse me. The place is crowded most of the time. So as I said I had seen him in the store a few times. He seemed like a nice guy. I was trying to figure out why the old couple in front of me was staying so far back. I mean it was really noticeable. They had almost 3 feet between where their stuff started and the end of the guy in front's stuff. They had their cart in front of them and the front of their cart was a couple feet from the guy in front. They also kept trying to back up. Then I over heard the old guy talking to his wife. It was horrible he was using the N word right and left. Talking about how bad the guy in front was and saying he was probably on food stamps. It was a truly horrible racist rant. I was embarrassed. This is supposed to be America where according to SCOTUS racism is over. BS. It lives in the hearts of many Americans just like this little old couple in front of me. The gentleman in front watched the cashier put the last of his groceries into his cart and paid, in cash, for his bill. It was well over $100.00. Finally the little old couple moved up. I watched as the cashier rang up their groceries. Then the irony started. He pulled out a SNAP card. He had just gone on and on about how the gentleman in front was probably on welfare and SNAP and scamming the system. Now he was trying to use a SNAP card to pay for his groceries. More irony to come. He had no money left on his card. He had to use 2 different debit cards to pay for his groceries. I moved up and the cashier quickly rang up my purchases. I took my cart over to the counter to bag my groceries. ( You bag your own at Aldi as well as bring your own bags and rent the cart for a quarter. You get the quarter back when you return the cart to the front of the store. ) I was next to the gentleman in front, the one who had been the subject of the racist rant. The little old couple were way down at the other end. I wanted to apologize for the old couple. I knew he had heard what the guy was saying.. I didn't know what to say. So I did what I could. I asked if he needed a hand bagging his stuff or any extra bags. I did end up apologizing for the racist couple. We talked for a few moments and then he said he heard it all the time. You have to hope it is just older Americans but it isn't. They are teaching their kids and grandkids to be just as racist as they are. You can hope the kids and grandkids will see the light but it is just that, a hope. Racism is not over.
I can't change those old people or their thinking. Maybe I should have said something to them. Maybe I should have gone off on them. That would have changed nothing though. They will continue to be racist idiots. They will miss out on all the opportunities for new friends that their views keep them from having. I can't imagine what would bring about that amount of hatred for anyone who they have never met before. It is completely baffling to me. Yet it is here and it lives in every corner of America. It must end. Not only does it hurt our communities but it hurts America.
Sun May 10, 2015 at 11:23 AM PT: I want to say thanks for all the suggestions in the comments. Still do not know what I will do next time except I think I will add a mention of Aldi in every Diary from now on. Hey maybe I can get them to bankroll me !