Brother?

Since moving west I've run into many occurences of people calling me:

1. Buddy
2. Dude
3. Bro

Buddy? Okay, I can handle that friendly familiarity. Dude? Damn, even I've let that one slip a few times now. But Bro? Yeah, I got an issue with that one.

Bro is a shortened form of brother. People in the OTO can call me brother. My wife's sibling can call me brother. My sister can call me brother. Outside of that list, there are only two guys who have called me brother and I believed them. One is big, drinks a lot, and has threatened a good number of my friends with a huge sharpened piece of steel. But he's never threatened me, never would, and when he called me brother, I knew he meant it. The other is a skinny little southwestern anarchist who lived with us here in Portland for a short time. I think he may have even called me bro a few times. There's some other people who could call me brother and I'd believe them, but they haven't yet.

Long story short, hardcore theoretical anarchists, burly Vikings, and cult members can call me brother. The rest of you should be rounded up and shot for extreme misuse of a sacred term. Or maybe gnawed to death by weasels. Yeah, weasels.