The old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is more true than ever, but some people just don’t get it. It seems that they’re positively helpless when they see a person who doesn’t conform to their standards and can’t wrap their minds around the fact that that person is more than their appearance.
It’s a pretty sad way to go through life and it says a lot more about the person judging than the one being judged.
Coffee stop
All Luc Perreault did was stop at a Tim Hortons in Ontario, Canada while he was out on his motorcycle. But one woman couldn’t see past the fact that he was a “biker,” and to her, that meant something negative.
Does he wear a leather jacket and have tattoos? Yes. But what does that prove?
He’s also a sensitive guy who loves his family and has enough class to be kind to strangers. So when a young girl walked up to him and said hello, he gave her a kind acknowledgment right back.
Then her mom “stepped in.”
Big Karen vibes
Now, a mother who pulls their child away from a stranger is normally just acting in their best interests. Most people get that. But that’s not what was going on here.
This woman admonished her daughter within earshot on Perreault, telling her she wasn’t allowed to talk to “dirty bikers.”
Sadly, her mom only taught her a lesson in how to become more hateful towards people who don’t look like you – well, that, and how to be an overall jerk.
A Facebook plea for kindness
Later that day, Perreault decided to post about his experience on Facebook to get people thinking about how hurtful – and how wrong – these ideas are. (Then, there’s of course the fact that no decent person says something like that within earshot.)
“To the family in the red SUV at Tim Horton’s today,” he wrote. “Yes I am a big 280 lbs guy with motorcycles and full of tattoos, I am a welder, I am loud, I drink beer, I swear and I look like I would eat your soul if you stare at me wrong.”
Frankly, we love that a little girl went up to him in the first place to say hello!
But Perreault had a message to send to the thoughtless mom:
“What you don’t know is that I have been happily married for 11 years, my kids call me daddy, i am a college graduate, my mother is proud of me and tells everyone how lucky she is to have such a wonderful son, my nieces and nephews are always happy to see there m’noncl Luc, when my daughter broke her arm I cried more than she did. I read books, i help people, I go out of my way to thank war veterans and I even cried at Armageddon.”
We give him credit for admitting to crying at Armageddon!
His viral post concluded with a message we hope this mother saw:
“So next time I smile and say hi to your little girl and you grab her and tell her ‘No no dear we don’t talk to dirty bikers,’ remember that even tho you hurt my feelings this ‘dirty biker’ would be the first person to run into your burning house to save your little girls gold fish so she wouldn’t be sad!!!!”
Now THAT’S class.
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