My conversation with Andre (not his real name):

A: Hey, plastic or paper?
N: Um, I need the paper bag, so paper.

A: Yeah, that’s a button alright [referring to my button that has a Heinz ketchup bottle on it with Kerry printed across the label].
N: I got it at the rally. Did you go?

A: Nah, I was like here, like all day.
N: But you’re voting, right?

A: Not for any of those clowns. They’re not my thing.
N: You’re not voting?

A: I may vote for one of the other dudes, I don’t know.
N: So you don’t care that you’re facilitating a Bush win? You don’t care if Bush, rather than Kerry becomes president?

A: Nah. I hate them both. They are not about any of my things.
N: And what are your things?

A: Oh, you know, like more radical. Nothing that they care about.
N: Don’t you think one of them is closer to what you care about than the other? And if neither represents the real you, maybe it would be a good idea to consider which one represents the interest of 85% of the people of this country and has the backing of the vast majority of progressives in the state?

A: Uh, maybe I just wont vote..
N: Why don’t you do what the Isthmus suggests – trade votes with someone in another state (see votepair.org), so that you can have your voice and still allow the better of the two to carry Wisconsin?

A: Huh?
N: Thanks for the groceries. [Silently: I don’t hate you, really I don’t. I embrace our differences. I am glad you’re picking up benefits at Whole Foods so that your head can get fixed in case it breaks down, if it hasn’t done so already.]