She was fairly obviously drunk. I can't say as I recognized her, but she sure knew who I was, even though I was wearing our sheriff's department chaplain shirt, not clerical attire.
"What the +*%# is the dang priest doing here?"
The department was executing arrest warrants in two locations and hadn't figured on one of them hosting a party when the team pulled up. A BUNCH of people lounged inside and out of the trailer as the deputies swarmed the place.
Eventually they were separated into groups for arrest or interrogation, and several were placed in the van for eventual transport. It was while she sat there, with the van doors open, that the tirade began.
"My parents were Catholic nuts and we prayed and went to church all the &^@~ time. It drove us kids crazy. They're all wackos, especially the priests."
I was holding a hand full of leg irons at the time, not looking her direction at all. In fact, I came eventually to intentionally not look at her or try to respond. She just kept going.
And then, when one of the deputies explained to her that the sheriff brought chaplains along on raids where small children or elderly might need care until Family Services could arrive, she REALLY flipped.
"What the =%$* you thinkin', having those pervert priests around KIDS!?"
I must say, I'd never thought of myself as a pervert, but her words rolled through my mind for days afterward.
Back in the '60s and '70s, it was common for hippie-types and demonstrators during the "make love, not war" times to holler at the "pigs." They sometimes even threw stuff at them... like body waste. I'd had sympathy, but had never really been on the receiving end of this type of taunting and derision.
She got jailed. I got to go home. I don't think much about it anymore. But I do think even more sensitively now about the cracks I occasionally hear from people who speak in derogatory fashion or use vulgar terms to slam law enforcement officers.
Ladies and gentlemen, walk on and hold your heads high.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
Aw, hell, they do too hurt now and again - but consider the source.
Please careful out there. God bless you for answering the call to protect and serve.
