The other day I actually exercised the first box right.

I figured that it may be the last chance we will ever have to exercise it.

I took a milk crate and gave it a quick wrap of duct tape and wrote 'soap' an all four sides with a Sharpie pen and went off looking for a likely looking spot. I landed in front of a State (liquor) Store and plopped the box down.

Then I got up on it and started making a semi-rehearsed speech on behalf of Donald Trump. It proved to be interesting.

I actually drew a small crowd and a number of comments. Some said I was preaching to the choir. A number of people chuckled and said they had never seen a guy get up on the soap box like that before.

I told them it was very possibly my last chance the way things were going and a number of people somberly agreed.

One of the few Hillary supporters argued that he had heard such and such on CNN and that drew chuckles. Someone said to him that CNN stood for Communist News Network and he scowled and shuffled off. He muttered something about calling the police on me.

Someone else told him they would do nothing, First Amendment and all... he shuffled off.

I found that there is an awful lot of support for Trump in my neck of the woods although it is not so much support for Trump as people see him as someone to block Clinton.

Actually the basis of my speech was mainly that. Block Hillary.

I was pleasantly surprised how many people agreed. I was also surprised when an old woman walked up and asked me if I was exercising my First Amendment right. When I told her I was, she said "God bless you!" and said she had never actually seen someone literally get up on the soap box before.

I am not comfortable publicly speaking and I had a very hard time getting started. However, once I did get started it got a little easier. I didn't really get used to it, though. Still, a man's gotta do what he's gotta do.

One of the people commented on the taxes he paid on liquor. I looked at him and grinned. I pointed out that Southwestern Pennsylvania has had quite a history of moonshining if he didn't want to pay the tax. That amused a number of people.

I had only one thing that even remotely resembled an incident and I handled it well.

Some hippie type Social Justice Warrior started to heckle me and I politely asked if he would kindly let me exercise the use of the first box of freedom.

"What's that?" he asked.

"The soap box upon which I am standing," I replied.

"What are the other three?" he asked.

"The ballot box and the jury box," I answered.

"That's only three," he said, indignantly. "What's the other?"

"The cartridge box," I said. "But I didn't bring a gun with me so I suppose I can't open that one. But I suppose with the number of carry permits in the county I can borrow one from one of the good citizens here if I need one."

Admitting I was unarmed had a small relaxing effect on the maybe 8 or 10 people that were there. Then something pretty cool happened. A fairly well dressed said he had a .45 in his car I could borrow if I needed it. I knew he was kidding and so did most everyone there.

"Stick around in case I do need it," I said. He grinned. Some people chuckled. 

The hippie didn't know if this was serious so he shuffled off. He had a dour look on his face. The whole incident probably lasted under two minutes. It was hardly worth mentioning. Still, it was amusing.

Anyway, after a while someone showed up and pointed that even though I was in front of the State Store I was in fact on private property and he asked me to leave. This is fair enough. If it is private property the owner has the right to ask me to leave. I did without incident.

As I was picking up my soapbox the guy said that he had been listening to me and I made sense. He was apologetic and explained they had a policy and had to enforce it fairly. I told him I understood and left.














To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY