Want to agitate some people?

[xxlt]

Beards were so unusual during this period that a veteran named Joseph Palmer suffered an attack for wearing a beard. In 1830, Palmer moved from his farm to the town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he found himself to be the only bearded man in the entire community. The residents of Fitchburg harassed him for what they deemed “his eccentricity.” Kids threw stones at him and called him “Old Jew Palmer.” Women crossed the street when they saw him approaching, while men “jeered at him openly” and smashed his windows. The local reverend even refused to grant him communion at church. 5 Finally, a group of four men—armed with soap and a razor—seized Palmer in the street. As a journalist later recounted the story, “They told him that the sentiment of the town was that his beard should come off and they were going to the job there and then.” 6

Palmer struggled to defend himself against the attack, but he was arrested and sent to prison for more than a year, where other prisoners also attempted to remove Palmer’s whiskers. When Palmer died in 1875, his tombstone was inscribed with these words: “Persecuted for wearing the beard.” 7 (Maybe Brian Wilson, the former relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, was inspired by Palmer when he told opponents to “Fear the Beard”?)

The above quote comes from here:
http://ushistoryscene.com/article/beards/

So I guess what I am witnessing in my daily life is the vestige of an American "tradition like no other."
Just call me Old Jew xx.