1283 Ban-handler

When I was at the airshow not long ago, I met this really annoying guy. Well I didn’t actually meet him, I did my best to avoid him.
Because he was one of those guys who are always pushing a ban. Ban this, or ban that, usually some form of ban taxes. A ban-handler if you will. A profession initiative signature gatherer. I could tell he was a pro because he sounded like a street hawker in Las Vegas.
He’d get your attention by asking if you were a registered voter. If you looked his way he’d say, “Good then I need a couple of signatures to ban the new tax and ban state-run liquor sales.”
If you even twitched in his direction, he’d swoop in. Your best defense against him was to have some other poor schmuck swept in first. The ban-handler only had one aggressive personality to use at a time.
Now understand. None of us likes taxes. But what we really hate is tax waste. And it’s scammers like this guy confusing the two that can cause trouble.
The irony was, every time the guy said repeal taxes, he was standing on a tax-paid-for road, at a tax-paid-for airport. At one point he was thrusting his petition while three people who were paid for with taxes were innocently standing nearby. They were army guys from Fort Lewis.
Our tax dollars at work.
Used to be, people went out and got initiatives signed because they believed in the cause. This guy was just a reformed street bum. Using every method he’d learned bumming money for cigarettes and booze and turning them loose for signature bounty money.
They ban aggressive panhandling, why can’t they ban aggressive ban-handling too?
America, ya gotta love it.