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Something Worth Fighting For

The other night, I was hanging out with my old college room mates.  We were going to head to dinner, but one of them wanted to stop by an "event" that his local comic book store was holding.  They were showing a little bit of art and serving wine & cheese, so we figured it couldn't hurt to add a little bit of culture to the evening.  Also, I've been known to buy a comic book or two on occasion, so I wasn't exactly opposed to the idea.

As I was leaving the house far earlier that morning, I threw on my Green Lantern t-shirt.  My brother & his wife got me that shirt for Christmas, and I figured it'd be appropriate given the evening's activities.  I'll probably end up wearing that shirt just for kicks on plenty of other occasions, but I figured I'd get a few more kicks if I wore that night.

Funnily enough, I came surprisingly close to getting kicks because of that shirt.

My friends and I (there were 5 of us) were walking somewhere after dinner, when a random stranger noticed my shirt.  He was walking in the opposite direction, and was with his two female friends.  Deciding to be a jerk, he thought it'd be funny to say, "the Green Lantern sucks, Captain Planet is way better."  If you never watched the show as a kid, it was really campy, and the dude has a frickin' bright green mohawk, for crying out loud.  Clearly, the dude walking past me was just trying to get a reaction.

It actually took me a second to process that he was being a jerk.  At first it sounded like random sounds, and then my brain processed that he was talking to me.  By that point, he was beside me, rather than in front of me.  Still, I figured he could hear me, so I told him what I thought of his observation (hint: it involved a swear word).

I wasn't looking to get into trouble, though, so I just kept walking.  The guy was trying to get a laugh or something, I thought he was being a jerk, and that was that.  The jerk thought very similarly, since he also kept walking.  My old roommate, though, heard a tiny bit of the exchange, and asked what had happened.  I gave him the brief synopsis, and his immediate reaction was, "we should go fight that guy."  In fact, he turned around, to see how far away said jerk was.

I think the phrase, "really, if you're going to fight, that's not a half bad reason" came up a couple of times shortly thereafter.  We also joked about the seeming awesomeness of greeting a jackass comment with a punch to the face.  Clearly, these were important matters that demanded the utmost seriousness.

Astoundingly, the "kick someone's butt over Green Lantern" plan did not come out ahead.  Instead, we all kept going and cracked jokes instead.  I'm not entirely sure how my rep, and the resulting street cred, are going to recover.  Still, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will forever remember the two seconds when I almost stood up and fought, literally, for something truly worth fighting for.

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