“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”  -Socrates

Earlier today, July 18th, I was driving down the road on the boulevard when a man in an old pick up truck with a camper pulled up right next to me… normally not a problem because he was going the same way that I was going, nothing out of the usual. That is until I saw what it was that he had written and painted all over his truck cab…

“Obama supports HOMOS!!!”

“Homos die!!!”

“Homos are baby killers!!!”

“Obama is a baby killer!!!”

I only glanced at the truck at first, but when I actually began to read what the truck said I instantly became enraged! I haven’t been that mad since the last time I almost got into a fist fight with someone earlier this year… I rolled down my window, ready to throw any obscenities I could think of his way! Then… I decided that ignorance doesn’t cure ignorance. I calmed down, looked at the man because he was looking in my direction and I just shook my head… and called the police.

I have rights too…

He has every right to his own opinion, but this was just too much… this was something that nobody else should be forced to witness. The hatred that was all over the man’s car was alarming to me, and so I called the non-emergency line… just in case there was nothing they could do. I told the operator what was written on the man’s truck and she immediately put me through to dispatch. I was becoming even more upset by this point because the truck was right next to me and there was nowhere I could go to get away from it! There was literally nowhere else that I could move to NOT see this man’s garbage. I tried to hold myself together for the dispatcher, but the man was just sitting there so smug, that I lost it…

I told the dispatcher that I demanded this vehicle be taken off the road, because I didn’t deserve to have my rights as a tax-paying citizen infringed upon just so that he could ride around spreading his hatred on the main strip of Vegas! I told the lady on the phone that tourists don’t come to see hate speech, they come to enjoy themselves and that removing this vehicle was a matter of our city’s main industry! Once again, I tried to stay calm, but I couldn’t take it… this man was trying to parade his filth around the strip as if nothing was wrong with saying that homosexuals didn’t have an equal right even to life!!! I raised my voice at the lady after giving her the full details of this man’s truck, because by now the light had finally come on and I was now tailing this guy to make sure that the cops could find his truck and show him a thing or two about Vegas justice.

I looked to the sidewalks and I could already see all the people looking over and reading this man’s truck, and I began to go stark wild at this point. “If the police don’t get this man off the road, he’s about to incite a riot, and you’re talking to it!” I exclaimed to the dispatcher… she was very calm, telling me that he has no right to have such slurs forced upon the public and that the police would be there shortly. “You better come get him because it’s taking everything in my power not to lose control of my vehicle up into the back of his!” I told the dispatcher…

The dispatcher and I both agreed that it was best for me not to continue following the man, for both of our sakes… as I turned the corner, I heard the sirens blaring down towards the man, and I knew it was over.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” -Edmund Burke

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so violated… but I knew that I had to do something, I couldn’t just sit in shock while this man actively sought to de-humanize me. I did something that I thought was right, after I heavily considered doing something that I knew was wrong, but what matters is that someone stood up against hate… I’m nobody special, I’m just a face in the crowd as far as that man was concerned, but I was the one that said no to ignorance.

God bless America.