Vox Popoli

Waiting for some service at the car repair shop this morning, I slipped into a chair in the "customer lounge." It was almost like a library, with only two other patrons, both absorbed in their reading.

Presently a young man rolled up in a hand-powered wheelchair, carrying a laptop computer. CAN WE GET SOME TV IN HERE? --He asked loudly. From somewhere somebody flipped on a talk show. The young man, watching TV with one eye and gazing at his computer screen with the other, remarked to anyone:

Yeh, now that they've got this health care thing there'll be nothing on the talk shows for two years but health care, health care.

Yeh, responded one of his fellow customers, they're just takin' away more of our freedoms...

Having found each other as kindred spirits, they began a loud and friendly chat. I retreated to the front of the building and perched on the curb, where I could read in relative peace. I was tempted to ask who paid for the wheelchair. Military, maybe.