The trials of shoe shopping

By Frank Moraes

In Springfield, Massachusetts, a group of people were waiting in a line outside the store Expressions. They were waiting for the store to open so that they could purchase the new Nike Air Jordans. What I fool I am! I didn't even know they still made these, much less that people waited in line outside stores to buy shoes that work as much as Nike advertisements as tennis shoes. But there you go: people were waiting in line to buy some tennis shoes.

Look: people can do what they want to do. Most people would say that the way I spend my life is stupid. But people were waiting in line yesterday morning where it was 27°F to buy shoes that cost three times the most expensive shoes I've ever bought. But to each his own! If these people enjoy spending their lives as consumer automatons, fine. Moving on with the story...

Well, a scuffle started and before anyone knew it, a gun was pulled, it went off and an 11-year-old girl was shot in the leg. I assume the girl is okay, but it is hard to say because the article about the shooting in The Republican only mentioned the girl twice: first that she was shot and second that the police don't think she was the target of the shooting. The rest of the story is about the police's unsuccessful search for the shooter. You've got to have your priorities right.

This whole thing makes me think of the old adage, "An armed society is a polite society!" That isn't true, but... Isn't it pretty to think so?

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)