Reply #98: Wish I'd been that shopper coming out of the store to see this happen

[DeschutesRiver]

Most of the time I am extremely fast witted in those kinds of situations. I would have backed you up on this, provided that my quick assessment of the woman was that she was just repub crazy and not bonifide whackjob crazy. There is a difference, in that the former can be messed up badly with choice words/ideas, but messing with the latter can get you hurt or killed.

But learning to assess what kind of response to give is part of choosing to be confrontational back at someone who is unjustifiably tearing your hide off in public. Most of the time if it is directed at me, I choose to leave the situation, because being alive is always preferred to ending up dead over some complete stranger's ranting and taunting actions. Boy, what a change for me who was a quick witted, smart ass, hot tempered young part Irish girl, who has tried really hard to mute her fierceness so that it is more useful - like using it to come to someone else's defense. I still do that whenever it is safe to do so. If I thought she was whackjob, I'd have still come over and given you enough cover to get the hell away from the danger. There is no reason for any of us to give up perfectly happy and good lives due to a chance encounter with a person whose threshold for frustration is sub-normal and who acts out regularly because they have no self control or ability to think or reason anymore. That needs to remain their problem, and not be allowed to intrude in our lives and be made our problem as well.

Good news is that you'll likely be more situationally aware of things around you now, so that in the future if this were to happen, first thing you'll do is take her license number or pull out your cell phone and ask her to hold still and try to speak more clearly and with less spittle while she threatens you because you are filming it and forwarding it as she speaks to the local police station and your attorney - and you want it really clear for the prosecutor. And tell her "ain't technology grand?"....