Compassion

[Smatter Noguts]

About 10 years ago my favorite watering hole was a joint called Flannigan's that was downtown across from a park and 3 blocks from the homeless shelter. In addition to the regular cast of characters was a dude who wore an old army jacket and was called 'Heyou' because his patented greeting to everyone was the old Taxi Driver movie line "Hey, you! You lookin' at me?"

This was before I read Bukowski and had embraced the lifestyle, so to speak, so I would smile and tolerate the guy because Glenn the bartender had a soft spot for him and would serve him up a shot even though Heyou wouldn't have enough for it and would just lay out a bill and some pocket change.

Caging drinks from other customers would ensue, and once I even payed along myself, until one night he goes on about his hard time in Vietnam and something snapped inside me because a couple of older guys at school I knew died there, and he's younger than me and I was a year too young to go and so he's obviously bullshitting and it made me really angry to the point of yelling at him, calling him all sorts of names and them telling him he didn't need any lying excuses for being a drunken bum, that he should just be one. I started going another favorite bar soon afterword and stopped going there.

So yesterday I was in there for St Pat's Day and ran into one of the old owners and we got to talking bout yesteryear and he brought up the incident. He said Heyou was back the night after the incident but was hooted out of the place. They never saw him again.

Now I feel bad. Because this should have gone in the drunken stories section, instead of the Pub.

I'm drinking Merlot. That's the problem.

[Palinka (RIP)]

From Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 1596.

PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

Seems appropriate.

[Badfellow]

Little compassion should be given those parasites who bluff the veteran card to elicit sympathy and cage drinks. It stings, not because I am a veteran (I am not) but because I have spotted so many drinks for so many vets. Family, friends and strangers. Out of moral obligation and respect. And as has been pointed out by Shakespeare via Palinka , mercy is a sweet and patient distillation fallen from the heavens like the angel's share returned to earth upon the brow of the deserved wise.

Smatter, sir. Remember that your compassion is never misplaced as long as it is genuine. If there's an issue of misplacement, that's on the fucker who didn't get it. And now I must drink of the maibock, bottle raised eastward of my current position.

[Patchez]

As a person who has served, peacetime only, I have a real problem with people who falsely claim vet status. More so if they falsely claim to have been a combat vet. That shit don't fly and I will call bullshit on it whenever I hear it. Generally I try to pull the bullshitter aside and let them know that I know. They usually cease when called on it. However if they persist I will then let them have it with both barrels publicly. The men and women who have served in peace and in war deserve that much. If you haven't earned it don't claim it. Period.

Smatter you did nothing wrong. Hold your head up. Trust me the hooch hustler had likely run this act at other bars before yours and many after that. Hopefully due to your intervention he was at least smart enough to change his song and dance.

[peetie44]

SERIOUSLY bad karma to fake being a veteran.

Don't feel bad, Smatter...you can bet that leech simply took his act to another bar.

[Resident Asshole]

It got so bad around these parts that I began asking to see their card before I would spot them change or smokes. And then I just stopped doing that altogether because I lost faith in all of them. Sad in a way.

[BigDog49]

I often time make them buy ME a beer whilst telling them of the heroic stories of me having to get up at 9:30 A.M. to be on time for a class that starts at 10:15 A.M. And they thought they knew the meaning of sacrifice..

[Miklo]

No Compassion. I am a Marine Corps Veteran with a combat tour in Iraq, no one should claim to be a vet if they werent, and for fucks sake, claim to have been in vietmam when they wernt, especially if they werent even a vet. fuck that. our vietnam vets had a enough of rough homecomming as it was. fuck him.

[mistah willies]

fuck him.