Generally I try to stay away from the grocery store on weekends; it’s too crowded, there’s nowhere to park, and there are almost always kids selling stuff at the door.  You know, the girl scout cookies, the grade school wrapping paper, collections for this band trip or that new playground equipment.  I feel so bad when I say no to those little faces, but I don’t want any of their stuff and I can’t afford to buy from them all.  So I don’t buy from any.

This past weekend I had to go to the store for something.  And sure enough there were cub scouts all set up just inside the front door with their table full of stuff to sell.  On the way out a little boy asked me if I wanted to buy some popcorn to help send them to camp.  I said “Not this time,” and headed out the door.  Just as I was clearing the front door I heard a man standing around nearby make a crack; “Guess you’ve lost your appeal, Luke.” and then I saw the little boy’s face fall.  As I passed through the door I registered that the man speaking was in a cub scout uniform himself, and I got mad.

All the way out to the car I got angrier and angrier.  What kind of leader of young men would make a comment like that, in public, and unwarranted?  It’s hard enough as a kid to spend your weekend dressed up in uniform asking strangers to buy stuff, but the kid was doing his job.  The leader, who was a smart-alack noisy, jerky kind of obnoxious guy was just standing around doing nothing more helpful than cutting his own guy down.  Instead of being encouraging, supportive or inspiring he was sarcastic and degrading.

I unloaded my grocery cart at the car, walked the cart back to the cart corral and kept on walking, back to the store.  Just inside the door I planted myself in front of the cub scout leader and announced quite loudly that I wanted to buy something from Luke, to prove he had not, in fact, lost his appeal.  I stared into the cub scout leader’s eyes and waited for his response.  He turned red.  “You heard me say that?” he asked.  Yes, I confirmed, I did.  And I wondered aloud if he had in fact seen the face of Luke at that moment.  The leader mumbled something unintelligible about “just kidding him” and I turned my back on him to confer with Luke as to what his favorite flavor of popcorn was, which I bought.

One of the mothers manning the table said thank you very much for coming back to buy something.  But buying something wasn’t the point.  The point was that people in leadership positions dealing with children should never ever belittle the kids.  Especially in public.  And that if they do, they need to be called on it.

Now I’m stuck with the stupidly expensive box of popcorn I didn’t want.  But maybe Luke feels better.  And maybe an arrogant, thoughtless cub scout leader will rethink his words in the future.

Hope so.