I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up some washing detergent and a few things for tomorrow’s breakfast. It had rained most of the day, not that I mind. It had been getting a little dry for this time of the year. A neighbor down the road had even taken to watering his freshly planted garden. We have been having rain pretty steady for months and folks complaining about how wet it is so they can’t even get into the fields to do the spring planting. I guess someone must have heard the complaining and taken it serious like. The rain had stopped all so sudden you could almost hear the brakes squeal. Now the same folks were beginning to complain about it turning off dry. Even God can’t please everybody.

Jake came out of the store as I pulled up in front of the fancy gas pumps that replaced the old pumps he had before. I told Jake to fill ‘er up as I climbed out of the car. Jake likes you to say “Fill ‘er up!” Jake started putting the gas in and commented it was a nice spring rain for this time of year. It was just coming down slow and steady, soaking into the ground with no gusty wind or fireworks. Jake thought it was nice to see a gentle rain come down this way. I made agreeable noises. I don’t have a garden that needs water. I don’t have the time for a garden with three weekly writing gigs, a full load of commercial customers and a new release promised in time for the fall season. My plate is pretty full, but I’m happy to see the rain come down for those that need it.

As I was starting to open the door into the store, I saw Fred Harbin sitting on one of the benches and spoke right pleasant to him. You don’t see Fred much around Charlie’s as most of the old guys who sit around and talk over the world situation tend toward the conservative political persuasion and Fred is more inclined toward the liberal view. Fred can defend his position with the best of them, but I guess he just thinks he can enjoy himself more passing time where he doesn’t get put on the defensive quite so often. I was passing on inside after speaking to Fred when he said he read my piece in the paper last week. I smiled and said I hoped he had enjoyed it, all the while trying in my head to remember what I had written for the week at issue. I put quite a bit of effort into composing a Charlie’s commentary but, once I send it off, my head is concerned with the next job at hand and I tend to forget things that have been finished and sent away. It was becoming apparent Fred had kept the commentary in his memory and wanted to talk about it. I have been in hot water before over something that has seen print under my name. Jake finished with the gas and ducked into the store without a word. Jake has his opinions, but he keeps them mostly to himself. It isn’t good for his business to express his preferences openly in front of paying customers. Mostly Jake just agrees with whatever a given customer is saying at the time.

“You came down pretty hard on us liberals,” Fred was saying. “Made us out to sound something like totalitarian baby murderers.” I was remembering what I had written and tried to defend myself by saying I was just reporting on a conversation that had taken place over a flyer Willard Smith had picked up someplace. I just thought the discussion was interesting, but Fred wasn’t seeing it that way. “You wrote that piece like you was believing every word you put down. You wrote it like you were one of those reactionary Bush supporters.” I didn’t see any point in getting into an argument over politics, so I tried to back off and reminded Fred I have not been in favor of everything the current administration has done. I have been rather outspoken in opposition to some of the administration’s war policies.

Fred admitted I had expressed some opposition to the invasion of Iraq early on, but I had been less forceful in my opinions recently. It looks like I have come around to the side of war. We talked about Iraq for a few minutes and it came to be that Fred and I mostly agreed about what should be done now the invasion is a done deal.

“But look,” Fred insisted. “Your take on liberals is all wrong. People who think the way I do don’t want to run people’s lives. We just think a country as great as this one can be should be able to help the less fortunate. There are people running around for whom this country has been extra good. There are people who have way more than they need to meet all their needs. All we are asking is that these well off people take a little consideration for the people who don’t have it so good. What about the homeless and mothers with children who do not have a father to take some of the responsibility for bringing those children up? Can’t the big and rich people share some of what they have to help the less fortunate? No one ever knows when it will turn out they will be the ones in need. You yourself could be driving home tonight and have an automobile accident that would put you in a hospital where medical expenses could eat up everything you have to the point you have nothing to fall back on. Wouldn’t you appreciate someone offering you a helping hand until you get back on your feet? That’s what people who think like me believe government should do for its citizens. Government should step in and do the things people can’t do for themselves. You tell me what is so terrible about that.”

I told Fred I could see his side of the issue. We talked for a while longer and Fred told the joke about the farmer who was working in his field when the preacher came by and commented him he and God had certainly done a fine job with that field. The farmer had worked hard clearing the field and resented the preacher’s comments. He said, “Well, you should have seen this field when God had it all to himself!” Before Fred left he invited me to come by and see his new set of hound dogs and I said I would try to get over real soon. People who call themselves liberal are not bad folks, they just look at things a bit differently from conservatives, but Fred defending the Liberal point of view had avoided the essential argument that Willard had made in taking the Liberals to task for their insisting that the government should do all things great and wonderful for its citizens. Fred had neglected to admit that there is a practical real world limitation on the benefits any government can grant its people and the issue for the Nanny State always comes down to who has the power to decide who shall benefit from the government's generosity and who shall be left out.

END