On the night of the first Gulf War

[pinto]

My partner, Greg, and I were at Big 5, of all places, to buy a ping pong table. We needed something to "do", y'know? Something to keep score at. It worked like a charm. We had many great afternoons beating one another with spinning back hands and the occasional overhead slam. We even instituted an imaginary "linesman" for disputes, after a while. Appeals were made and agreed upon. Dinner was made. It was all good.

Anyway, Greg was schizophrenic, so going to Big 5 was open to a lot of variables. He didn't like big stores, and neither did I. We had a standing agreement, if things were over the top, we leave - no questions asked or answered.

So, naturally, Big 5 has CNN on the overhead speaker. Greg had been following the dispute about oil drilling between Iraq and Kuwait. He favored Iraq's argument that Kuwait's slant drilling was a violation of an agreement the two countries had made. We both were aware of the saber rattling.

The Big 5 guy was loading the table on a push truck when the blurb came over the speakers: "The bombing of Baghdad has begun."

All hell broke loose. "No. This is wrong. This is wrong!"

Of course, heads turned. The store guy looked sheepish, thinking about the break he could have been on. I watched. In the back of my head, I knew a ping pong table was no big deal...

Greg wanted to stop the store itself, I think....He wanted people to think about it, I know that for a fact. The ethics of the thing was the point, and it was ethically unacceptable.

I played the "let's get the table on the truck" card...Greg agreed, between us, but didn't slack at all in letting folks know about the mistake that was being made in our name.

He was right. He knew it, I knew it and the people in the store knew it.

It was raining, but we got the table on the truck and got it home.

We loved that table, and told the "we're bombing Baghdad story" when ever possible. It still rings true.

[Democrats_win]

1. It's even clearer now that the first GW was wrong.