Strangers=Danger

I live in a small town.  The same small town, in fact, that I grew up in.  My wife too.  The other day while driving to the office I had to do a double take.  Standing on the corner on the way out of town was the entire maintenance contingent from the high school, with signs that read "Strangers=Danger".  That's probably not necessarily true, but we'll overlook that for right now.

 

What the hell were the school custodians doing picketing?  What numbskull put together those awful fluorescent green signs designed to inspire powerful fear in onlookers of all walks of life?  As it turns out they are concerned about an initiative to privatize their jobs.  Our school system has been trying to find ways to save money, and apparently they think the smart thing to do is to cut the benefits for the people who have done such a good job maintaining our schools for at least the last decade.  Hey guys, thanks for donating ten years of your life...hope you didn't need insurance or jobs.

 

This afternoon as I returned from the office, I once again noticed the picketers.  They were blazing green locusts accosting every corner of our small town.  They decided to ratchet up the campaign, though, and they were all wearing ties and button up shirts (except Ms. Coffee, of course).  This was a brilliant strategy to show the community what they would miss if the initiative were to pass.  Except for one little problem.  Custodians might be as goofy as computer geeks.  They were clustered on three corners in groups of four people (give or take).  As I passed by, without fail, one or even two of the picketers in each group infallibly were staring off into space, their neckties askance, signs hanging at some random angle...completely unreadable.