Wow, man.
I'm seeing a lot of anger and hostility out there lately. Last evening, I got a taste for a cafe mocha so I drove over to Starbucks to get one. As I was leaving the mall lot, I was sitting there in my car at a red light, happily singing away to some 90's dancey remake, when all of a sudden, some dude in a suit comes flying OUT of his Mercedes and starts screaming at my window about
"WHY CAN'T YOU MOVE UP FOUR FUCKING INCHES SO I CAN MAKE A GODDAMN RIGHT TURN YOU STUPID BITCH!!!!!!!!" His face was turning purple and spit was flying.
It's not like dude honked at me 17 times and I ignored him. He honked ONCE, and I paid no attention because I didn't automatically assume he was honking at ME.
So of course, I moved my car up the impolitely requested four inches, and Mr. Pissy Pants made his life alteringly crucial right turn. THEN, the SUV that had been behind him pulls up behind me, and some young thug looking type gets OUT ofthe SUV, runs up, and starts KICKING MY CAR.
For no reason.
This sort of thing is becoming increasingly more common of late.
If you think about it.....hell....forget about the war in Iraq. We are at war right here in our own US of A society.
It's the red states vs. the blue states, rednecks vs. *intellectuals*, men vs. women, gay vs. straight, knuckledraggers vs. emo boys, feminists vs. old fashioned girls, friggin Dan Rather vs. Fox News.
Really, the very definitions of what is means to be a man and what it means to be a woman are changing - and even the most basic issues of what is right and what is wrong cannot be agreed upon.
The radical right wants to use the murder of the pregnant Laci Peterson to erode abortion rights, and the radical left wing feminists rushed to the defense of a woman named Andrea Yates who murdered all five of her own children, shrieking about post partum depression and the horrifying, stifing opression of Motherhood.
So many things that we took as status quo, so much of what we have come to know and accept has been blown up, and everyone is running around trying to dodge the shrapnel while at the same time trying not to step on anyone's toes and thus be lectured to by the PC police.
You don't have to pay attention to politics to see that our society is in a state of upheaval the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1960's - maybe even more so.
When people no longer know how to act, or what is acceptable and what is not - when people are no longer even sure exactly what their gender/race/sexual preference/lifestyle choice MEANS anymore.....
....people get confused, and people get angry.
Do I have a solution? Well....not really. I'm just making an observation, and thinking that maybe EVERYONE needs to sit back, take a few deep breaths, and know that the dust WILL settle eventually, and that when it does, some progress will have been made.
It's not easy to keep that in mind while you are dodging schrapnel and choking on the collar of political correctness.
There is an old eastern curse that says "May you live in interesting times."
I had always thought that it would be cool to be around for days like the 60's when everything is changing. But now I'm starting to understand the nature of that curse.
For the most part, I manage to maintain my goofy demeanor through such turmoil...but on occasion, I catch a bit of schrapnel and that makes me contemplative.
I'm seeing a lot of anger and hostility out there lately. Last evening, I got a taste for a cafe mocha so I drove over to Starbucks to get one. As I was leaving the mall lot, I was sitting there in my car at a red light, happily singing away to some 90's dancey remake, when all of a sudden, some dude in a suit comes flying OUT of his Mercedes and starts screaming at my window about
"WHY CAN'T YOU MOVE UP FOUR FUCKING INCHES SO I CAN MAKE A GODDAMN RIGHT TURN YOU STUPID BITCH!!!!!!!!" His face was turning purple and spit was flying.
It's not like dude honked at me 17 times and I ignored him. He honked ONCE, and I paid no attention because I didn't automatically assume he was honking at ME.
So of course, I moved my car up the impolitely requested four inches, and Mr. Pissy Pants made his life alteringly crucial right turn. THEN, the SUV that had been behind him pulls up behind me, and some young thug looking type gets OUT ofthe SUV, runs up, and starts KICKING MY CAR.
For no reason.
This sort of thing is becoming increasingly more common of late.
If you think about it.....hell....forget about the war in Iraq. We are at war right here in our own US of A society.
It's the red states vs. the blue states, rednecks vs. *intellectuals*, men vs. women, gay vs. straight, knuckledraggers vs. emo boys, feminists vs. old fashioned girls, friggin Dan Rather vs. Fox News.
Really, the very definitions of what is means to be a man and what it means to be a woman are changing - and even the most basic issues of what is right and what is wrong cannot be agreed upon.
The radical right wants to use the murder of the pregnant Laci Peterson to erode abortion rights, and the radical left wing feminists rushed to the defense of a woman named Andrea Yates who murdered all five of her own children, shrieking about post partum depression and the horrifying, stifing opression of Motherhood.
So many things that we took as status quo, so much of what we have come to know and accept has been blown up, and everyone is running around trying to dodge the shrapnel while at the same time trying not to step on anyone's toes and thus be lectured to by the PC police.
You don't have to pay attention to politics to see that our society is in a state of upheaval the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1960's - maybe even more so.
When people no longer know how to act, or what is acceptable and what is not - when people are no longer even sure exactly what their gender/race/sexual preference/lifestyle choice MEANS anymore.....
....people get confused, and people get angry.
Do I have a solution? Well....not really. I'm just making an observation, and thinking that maybe EVERYONE needs to sit back, take a few deep breaths, and know that the dust WILL settle eventually, and that when it does, some progress will have been made.
It's not easy to keep that in mind while you are dodging schrapnel and choking on the collar of political correctness.
There is an old eastern curse that says "May you live in interesting times."
I had always thought that it would be cool to be around for days like the 60's when everything is changing. But now I'm starting to understand the nature of that curse.
For the most part, I manage to maintain my goofy demeanor through such turmoil...but on occasion, I catch a bit of schrapnel and that makes me contemplative.
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Btw- THANK YOU for your constant support and encouragement over the past week or so. It's been rough, but people like you are helpin me through!