You Must Have Mistaken Me For Someone Else

Anyone who knows me (and many of you whose only knowledge of me is via this blog) know that I am not really one to play my cards close to my chest. If I think it, chances are, it is out there for you to see, discuss, hate, whatever. Don't ask my opinion if you don't want to hear it.

This is the lesson that one of the drivers from the car service I use here in the UK learned last night. I had just entered the car and was being driven over to meet some friends when the driver (a native Albanian) struck up a conversation.

"So! What do you thank about Bush visiting over here?" the driver asked with only barely disguised enthusiasm. My feeling of foreboding at having to be enthusiastic about a topic I am pretty-much over began as a low, nagging itch.

"I hear that your countrymen gave him quite a reception." I replied, trying to be polite and disguise my loathing for the man. (The president, not the driver.) "He got the real rock star treatment."

"Yes!" the driver said with unbridled enthusiasm. "He is a great man! We love him in Albania!"

"You should have kept him." I offered. "I'm sure he wouldn’t have been missed."

From this point the discussion pretty much foundered touching on but not sticking to whether Bush was intelligent, whether he was honest, whether he was popular, and whether his presidency will go down in history as anything but a truly tragic mistake.

"Well, you must love him, he is what America is!" the driver finally offered, grasping at straws.

"Don't ever say that!" I said emphatically. "That is an insult to the 67% of Americans who think he is a buffoon and many of the minority who don't. Don't ever compare me to that man. What an insult!"

I'm pretty sure that he hadn’t intended to insult me, but I was still seething as we arrived at our destination. I did tip him well and (thankfully) we didn't reprise our discussion a few hours later on the way home again. All I can say is "Thank God for good British ale!" It took the taste of the conversation out of my mouth.

Wherever you are today, I hope that any comparison made between you and anything/anyone else are favorable.

Don Bergquist - 13 June 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK