We've talked to basically 3 people in Safford, AZ, Part Deux

And two of them were crabby...

The first was a crotchety old codger giving the bike shop owner that had been helping us out a difficult time ("I don't need no gears! I don't need no brakes - just a coaster brake!" And you know what? I can totally respect that. I want a bike like that too; like my grandparents had at the cottage. I'm just not gonna do it the way the old 5th generation Arizonan Marine was doin' it.)
(5th generation? Each generation is about 20 years, so 100 years. How long has AZ been a united State? How did the US acquire AZ? Casey Stengel.)

The second one was a woman who stopped at our table outside "A Step Back in Time", where we were supporting the local economy by eating lunch (which became "linner" by the time our sandwiches came out; and we stopped talking with Marie.)

It really was a fascinating conversation, and I truly enjoyed it - even though, when you leech the substance out of the ore of our conversation, we disagreed fundamentally on many things.
For instance, she gleefully said
- they busted the union (at the mine)
- people were opposed to the union b/c they spent money helping Planned Parenthood - and were forced to pay union dues. Forced. Some of the dues went to things they did not support.
- the tailings pond collapsed at the one mine here in town, across the valley, but they (the mine "corporate person") said it's "no problem", "there's nothing in those copper leeching ponds stronger than Coke." (How about all the farmers, the cows, the agriculture in the Gila River valley, downstream from the broken tailings pond? How about the reservoir downstream, backed up against the Coolidge Dam - that all the whiteys boat, fish and swim on/in/at? And, ironically, there is a cancer fundraiser here in town next week...)
She complained strongly about one woman, on welfare, who had it "really good". "I didn't have health care!" (Heidi pointed out, after Marie left, that she could have instead focused on why she did not have health care; not why the welfare recipient did have some medical care. The theme seemed to be "take away from others", rather than "take action to get more for what I value".)
She hated the fact that the federal govt was going to spend some money ($1 million) on some stupid endangered red squirrel on Mt Graham. She was proud of the fact that she stopped it. And part of what had pissed her off so much was that "the (state?) teacher of the year" in the next county was laid off due to lack of (federal grant?) funds. When I asked her if the teacher got funded; after her massive efforts to de-fund the endangered species act spending? She didn't know. "Take away from others; don't add to what you value." I didn't get around to mentioning all the road/motorist kill songbirds, mammals, snakes and lizards we see - every day.
Etc.

Each time I would let her finish, which would take at least 5 minutes, typically; and then I would offer a counter example.
Like Americans who did NOT support the invasion of Iraq? (Part Deux) Those Americans who still have to pay taxes to pay for it? The fact that the President and his party's majority of both houses in Congress gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy - and put the invasion on the credit card? (She had complained about the debt, of course. I failed to whip out my "tax cut and spend" label for her undeclared favored party. Next time!) The amount each American owes for that invasion is way more than the amount union members at the mine were spending on women's medical care providers like Planned Parenthood (3% of which goes towards abortions - the "sticking/take advantage" of part; or the amount each American owes for the stupid, lazy "welfare queen" [to quote Ronald Reagan's term for riling up the "conservatives", to increase hatred against the poor, the sick, the hungry - some of whom are certainly lazy, stupid, and who knows, worse?]
How about the CEO who drives the company into the ground - but gets a $10 million severance?
How about the corporation "who" pays no federal income tax, on billions in profits, even if they are from govt/taxpayer supported contracts? And likely gets bail outs on top of that?
Again, way more money than the lazy, stupid welfare recipient she was stuck on.

Looks like Fox News Corporation's work here is done. And, like I said before - its motto should be updated from "Fair and Balanced" to Scott Walker's declared tactic - "Divide and Conquer". Fox and company are making Americans hate each other; and getting many of them to focus on all the little negative things in America - rather than growing our country. And that's sad. We could really do so much better. Too bad Reagan got rid of The Fairness Doctrine (Casey Stengel).

I told her, in the end, that there are people and "corporate people" in this country who would prefer that we would fight with each other, that we Americans would be divided, that we would be focused on the 1% of Americans that are "taking advantage" of welfare (which some surely are) - instead of the other 1% that are "taking advantage" of Congress, buying favorable legislation and tax laws - AND costing us WAY more than the single mother on welfare who "has medical care". ("And I didn't!")

Heidi said she liked the way I "argued with Marie, without arguing." I considered that "a win." And I "liked" Marie. I tried to keep it respectful, and interesting. I tried to draw Marie out; to show Heidi what influential Arizonans are like, what they think, how they feel, who they hate, "who" (in this case it was a massive mining corporation) they respect.

The long and short of it was that it felt like "a step back in time" for me, to about 1950, talking to her. And I like history, and archaeological ruins...