So there I was, sitting on the bench outside the barbershop when all of a sudden this absolute crackhead on a bike approaches me very aggressively. Homie’s got missing teeth, covered in dirt, holes in all his clothing, and just overall not well taken care of. Dude has no boundaries as he walks up to me and tells me a series of uneducated things. A few months ago, stores and businesses started to open back up, specifically, barbershops. I was going to get my haircut in downtown Utica, but only one person is allowed inside at a time because of COVID-19.

Now I’m obviously wearing my mask because I’m not about to get a virus and get fined $500, why would I do that? Because of this, the first thing this man says to me is “Take that mask off.” I could lie and say I told him to “frick off” or something, but to be completely honest I was caught very off guard by Mr. Crackhead. As a result I completely froze.

He continued on by saying “The government’s trying to control us with those damn things, you don’t need that thing.” Now again I’m not sure what Mr. Crackhead is capable of, so I stay silent, but the first thing going through my head at this moment is how dumb my guy looks right now. I mean if I’m being honest I saw people like this on YouTube, but I was unaware that people like this consistently existed in our society.

As he continued rambling on, I just kept thinking that there’s no issue with wearing a mask. You can breathe just fine in them when walking around, so who really cares. But this guy, this guy was different. He NEEDED to take that mask off. He just NEEDED to be free and independent from the government. The only way to do this was obviously not wearing a piece of cloth. Obviously this sounds stupid but Mr. Crackhead genuinely thought this was the way life should go.

Then out of nowhere my guy starts talking about politics. Please anyone out there, if you can tell me how staying alive relates to being a democrat or a republican I will GLADLY hand over $100 dollars right now. This is just ridiculous at this point and I just want Mr. Crackhead to leave me alone.

He brings up our governor and starts talking in way I never thought I would see in my entire life. Saying stuff about bars and how Governor Whitmer is an alcoholic and it made absolutely no sense to any extent. Gradually he started to say worse and worse things that made me not annoyed anymore, but actually sad.

Continuing on, he brought up Governor Whitmer’s Lieutenant Governor, Garlin Gilchrist II. Referring to him with a certain racial slur starting with ‘n’ I don’t feel comfortable saying nor typing. I felt so uncomfortable in this situation that I didn’t know what to do. I met an awful person that I never thought I’d personally see in my entire life.

The worst part of this in my opinion, is the quietness of my room when I finally got home. It got me thinking a lot about what had just happened. The fact that people like Mr. Crackhead actually exist in our country today is just sickening. It’s 2020 ladies and gentlemen, wake up and realize that everyone is equal and deserves a fair chance in everything. We’ve progressed so much in our society and it’s so irritating to see ignorant idiots ruin the progress we’ve made over the past decades.

Thankfully, my barber noticed it, and actually called the cops on Mr. Crackhead. Apparently he’d been harassing numerous other people around the area, so it wasn’t just me. Some people are out here going crazy, and I don’t think anyone likes to see it.

All in all I think we need more change in our society. People are entitled to whatever opinions they want, but that doesn’t mean you can force your beliefs on other people. If I feel like I want to live, I’m going to wear a mask. You do you man, I’m going to do me. If you feel a certain way about certain races, just keep it to yourself. I hate to break it to you, but literally no one cares and if anything you’re only going to infuriate good-hearted people.