Why I Stopped Boycotting Businesses and Cutting People Off Because of Their Political Views
But I still fall apart in conversations about politics
“I cling proudly to my guns and my bible,” read a plaque on the counter of the coffee shop. Impossible to miss, it sat beside the cash register, above the glass shelves of muffins, loaves of bread, and pasties, all freshly baked. My spouse, Wendy, and I glanced at the sign, at each other, and then at her mother, Sherry, dressed up in the blouse she wore every day — we couldn’t get her to change it — accessorized with a pin. We could have turned around and walked out, as one of my friends suggested we should have done and should always do when a business supports political views at odds with ours. Instead, we took a table near a window, with one seat facing the counter, one the handmade cards and crafts displayed by the coffee urns, and one a view into the woods.
None of us agreed with the religious or Second-Amendment fundamentalism the sign on the counter alluded to. But we were desperate for a break from my mother-in-law’s cramped, dark house. She had sobbed with confusion earlier in the day over a letter from the registry of motor vehicles that her license had been suspended. Wendy had sorted through her bills and replenished her overdrawn bank account. Soon we’d go grocery…
