"Why put them in that situation?"

As I've said before, I work selling fireworks during the summer. The people who own the place are almost-family; they used to be the family of my aunt, until my aunt and uncle divorced. They like me, and my mother/father/sister because we're good at selling fireworks and we're reliable.

This past summer I worked for them in "boy mode". It will be the last time; I'm going full-time when the coming semester starts. But I was speaking to my mother a couple of weeks ago, and she suggested that I would need to get a full-time summer job next summer (fireworks is really over-time for like 3 weeks, and it pays really well). I pointed out that I would, of course, if fireworks didn't work out. She responded with something--rather, two somethings--that really irked me.

First was "Well, you know what they'll say..."

No, I really don't. I have suspicions, and strong suspicions they are--but one can find good, respectful people in unlikely places. It's profoundly disrespectful of the proprietors of these stores to presume they would be so ignorant as to reject someone like myself, someone they've much liked having as an employee in the past, for essentially erroneous reasons. They like getting as many girls as possible working, anyway--I suppose it makes old inebriated men (a significant portion of our target demographic in selling explosives) more willing to pay a ridiculous 12% sales tax (which raises issues of objectification and sexism, obviously, but I have to pick my battles sometimes).

It is, of course, safer to assume that they will react negatively, and I will prepare for such an eventuality as best I can. But I refuse to simply write someone off before I've given them a chance to show respect and sensitivity. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a philosophy I extend to everyone--fireworks merchants included.

Second was "Why put them through that?"

Through WHAT, precisely? A potential confrontation with their own bigotry? I don't just enjoy making people uncomfortable. I LIKE selling fireworks. It's hard work, but it pays well, and hours are flexible. Absolutely, I am going to force them to make that decision. If I'm not wanted they're going to have to say it. Maybe they'll do it without a second thought, and feel justified--but perhaps they will instead have to think, to decide. I've always been a boon to the bottom line. I'm a good worker. Are they willing to give that worker up for such an absurd reason? At worst, then, I've made them think, and maybe the next person who comes along will have it easier--at best I still have a great summer job. Anything I put them through is a labyrinth of their own design. I have not made a bed of bigotry--but so help me, if they have they'll lie in it.

Done with work--with bonus commentary track!

So my sort-of family owns a chain of fireworks stores, Marvin's in southern Indiana/north-western Kentucky. Now that the fireworks season has come and gone I'm (hopefully) done working for them. The pay, I'll give you, is good, but the work is beyond frustrating. I almost have a moral problem with selling explosives to the inebriated and occasionally criminally stupid ("Hey, do I really need to put artillery shells in the tube?" "Uh, well, only if you want any control in what direction they shoot off in, and are fond of having hands...") but I figure it's your responsibility to use pseudo-weapons of war...well, responsibly. Bottom line is I should be updating more often now.

On a different note:

My mother once told me: "When I think of you and your sister, the thing that gives me the most pride is that you both turned out to be your own person, independent of me and your father and your grandparents and all. The greatest disappointment is that deep down, you're both damn Republicans."

I'm not really a Republican, I don't think. Certainly I'm not what we consider a Republican these days--I've grown up in Kentucky, sure, but my mother's a teacher and my father's bounced between factory worker and factory management for most of my life (which does give me some interesting views on labor unions). Deep down I WANT to be a Libertarian, but Libertarianism unfortunately rests on the assumption of equality of opportunity, something we've not quite reached (I also cannot accept the idea of "states' rights" in this day and age; the concept was a necessary evil when the US was formed, but these days we should realize that right and wrong are not bounded by which side of the Ohio you're on).

So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm working for equality of opportunity--in both a legal and a social sense--so that I can say without any misgivings that I believe in absolute personal responsibility, free markets (because only with equal opportunity can they really be free) etc. Dunno why I'm talking politics here, I guess I just feel like I sometimes don't come across clearly without a little information on where I'm coming from.