Welcome To 2008: Another Year

. . . of rudeness and self indulgence; more of the American "It's All About Me" syndrome.

First up, from Fort Worth, Tejas:

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion.

Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children [out loud - BZ] when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus.

Lutz, a Seventh Day Adventist, and her children were on their way to church.

I have to admit, with my current frame of mind, this story simply lit my afterburner. But there's more:

Or was it a clear cut case of policy?

"Anyone who is loud will be asked to be quiet," said representative Joan Hunter. "That is a standard policy across country in the transit industry."

It doesn't matter what is said, the T has a policy of no loud or abusive behavior.

Maybe I don't know the whole story; obviously I wasn't there. But this smacks to me of more people simply pulling out the Victim Card and, you know what? I am really, really getting tired of this crap. This isn't about religion; this is about common courtesy or, more pointedly, the lack thereof.

Here's the deal: if it was the policy of the transit district, then they did nothing more than their jobs. As I would expect them to do. And this sounds like nothing more than adherence to policy. At least they have a policy.

Here's my thought on this and many other public matters:

When in public, I have a societal obligation to those persons around me. One of those obligations is to not be obnoxious or loud.

If she had been reading a Michelle Malkin book to her kids out loud I would have had the same reaction: try conducting your verbal reading sessions in the privacy of your very own home. I'm not riding a bus to listen to anyone read anything out loud; I'm riding the bus to get from Point A to Point B and nothing else. I don't want to know about your life and, quite frankly, I couldn't care less. I have a task to perform. Let me do it with the minimum of disturbances and I'll reciprocate in kind.

And that is not to minimize my obligations to our society -- our society being, of course, a cooperative. An incomplete list of my obligations would include (off the top of my head) some of the following:

- If not courteous, at least be civil;

- Courtesy, however, should be our public goals;

- To be cooperative, collected, considerate of others;

- To watch language (I have trouble with this, as my print readers know);

- To not be rude or obnoxious or loud;

- To wait for my turn when in a line;

- To not treat my public experience as though I was the only one involved or present.

- Say please;

- Say thank you; saying "no problem" is not the same;

- To chew gum or food with my damned mouth closed;

- To hold open doors for those closely following me, woman or man;

I once again repeat: society is a cooperative.

• I feel it is my obligation to move my shopping cart to the complete side of the aisle when looking for a specific item.
• I feel it is my duty to stay out of the fast lane if I don't feel like exceeding the speed limit, or when looking for an address, etc.
• I feel it is my duty to pay attention to traffic lights and get safely through intersections quickly enough that as many of those behind me may enjoy the same luxury.
• When paying, I feel it's my obligation to have all my money ready when it's my turn, and not to dig in my pockets, check slowly in my wallet/purse for each and every little coin.

Just this afternoon, for example, a carload of ignorant little white teens decided they owned the entire aisle in a parking lot when the driver was on the cell phone and no one was getting out or picked up. They were completely oblivious. Because I deigned to not wait for them and came within inches of their thrashed Honda to pass, I got the hairy eyeball and the finger-flip from them collectively.

Just this afternoon, when the wife and I went to go see "Water Horse" at a small local theatre, a mother brought her (estimated) 12-year-old daughter and an infant. The infant squalled and made noise throughout the first portion of the film until I said: "Do you mind? Everyone here paid money to hear the film, not your child." How is it that an adult even remotely thinks an infant is going to sit still through an entire movie? Are people actually that stupid? And to stave off the next assumed counter-argument: NO. It is NOT my job to "accommodate" this mother in the theatre. Parents have been "doing without movies" when their children were infants for years prior to her showing up today. This was simply rude and endemic of societal self-centeredness.

As I've written before, when in public and particularly in venues when I have PAID FOR AN EXPERIENCE such as a movie, a restaurant, a museum, a play, I do not pay to listen to you blather away on your stupid cell phone; I don't pay for your children or your infants to shriek at the tops of their lungs, throw food on the floor or run about the area; I don't pay to listen to your loud, drunk proclamations over more glasses of beer; I don't pay to listen to your loud voice carry throughout the venue whilst you regale your idiot friends over a bad shampoo. And OH so MUCH more!

Welcome to 2008, everyone; looks like it'll be more of the same: ignorant people playing various Victim Cards thinking (due to parental training) that it's all about them.

Those are just a very few of my Public Hot Buttons. What might yours be?

BZ