After returning my rental car on Monday night (it was actually a rental SUV, a fact that makes me feel both rugged and dirty at the same time), I stopped off at the grocery store to buy some chocolate soy milk. I had gone a week without chocolate soy milk, and a week without chocolate soy milk is not a week worth living, in this man’s opinion. I also decided to pick up some organic vanilla yogurt; I wanted a big tub, but all they had were those little cups, which are not very filling, in this man’s opinion.

This man has a lot of opinions today.

Anyway, as I was paying for this, I became aware of an argument going on between a woman shopper and the store’s manager. At first, I thought this must be about some mislabeled or spoiled food. What else is there to argue about in the grocery store? As it turns out, there was indeed something else.

The woman had noticed that one of the store’s employees, a young Hispanic man, had cut his hand so severely that blood was actually pooling on the floor. As I watched, the employee attempted to address this problem by wrapping the wound in a paper towel and putting his entire hand in a plastic glove. The woman firmly, politely, and loudly insisted that the manager make sure that his employee was treated at an emergency room. The manager, on the other hand, insisted that the injury was not that bad and that his employee should keep working. The employee, smiling sheepishly, listened to this exchange as his glove filled with blood.

I’m not sure why this scene resonated with me so much at the time, but given a couple of days to think about it, it seems that it is a good illustration of the progressive vs. neoconservative political worldviews. To the woman who was shopping, the manager represented the evil corporate overlord, oppressing the well-being of his slave labor force. To the manager, the woman was a busybody, a loud-mouthed bitch out to make trouble in an arena that was beyond her concern.

It goes without saying that my sympathies fell with the hapless employee, injured in the line of duty. At this moment, I’m wishing I had become involved in this discussion. I tell myself now that, if I had actually seen the pool of blood on the floor (rather than merely heard the woman’s description), I would have. I do know that that anonymous woman was my hero of the week, and I will try to be more outspoken in pursuit of justice.

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Oh look, here’s some justice worth pursuing. I shall be outspoken about it:

The Human Rights Campaign is trying to generate 150,000 letters to Congress in the next two days opposing the proposed amendment to the constitution against same-sex civil unions. Click here to send an automatic (and free) letter to your representatives. Also, if despite my repeated haranguing, you have not yet signed the “Million for Marriage” online petition, please do so immediately by clicking here.