So today I got really embarrassed about my friend Wayne’s reaction to something I did recently regarding some road rage and blah it’s on facebook go read about it. Anyway, the whole incident got me thinking. About how I’m getting old, about what is etiquette anyway, about how I need a concealed weapon permit, about how maybe I am the one who is a bad driver here, maybe I’m just an old lady driver and everyone is right I should have just gone already! And who calls the cops on reckless drivers anyway? And on and on and on.
Today an almost identical thing happened. Exactly the same traffic situation except I didn’t call the police. I followed the woman, tried to flag her down, followed her for miles, and lost her in a parking lot. I was going to ask her. Just ask her. Why did you do that. Why would you scream and yell and wave angrily like that for someone to GO GO GO when you, could you not see that by pulling forward like that you were obstructing my view of oncoming traffic so that YOU WERE KEEPING ME FROM BEING ABLE TO GO GO GO ? I wanted to have her face to face to just ask her. I didn’t want to beat her up. But I wanted to ask her what possible end did you see here? What if I was a 16 year old girl? What if my 16 year old daughter had been driving that? Do we want to teach our kids that as long as the car that is obstructing your view tells you (DEMANDS THAT YOU)to go, you should do it?
Anyway: my commentary on this issue:
Here’s the thing: be prepared. If you’re going to act like an ass in the car, or on the internet, or in a store as a customer or a clerk, thinking “OK, this is my time to shine, my moment of release, my chance to let it fly and then quickly move on, what are they gonna do, chase me down and confront me? Who does that, anyway? Where are we, the ghetto?”
Well, maybe you are. Just be aware that maybe you are in the ghetto, or the south, or the ghetto south, or you could just be in my neighborhood.
Because maybe I’M the person beside you. Maybe my NPR stickers and my Another mama for Obama tag and my double heart sticker belie my true nature and you may find yourself speeding away from, and unsuccessfully trying to evade a woman who will, yes, follow you into your place of business or your lunch appointment or your hair stylist and ask you, in front of your friends or your boss or your business associates why you felt it so urgently necessary to shout “ASSHOLE!” and gun the engine on your SUV with the Jesus fish and the Choose Life license plate as you recklessly wove in and out of traffic after whatever it was I did to offend you in the first place. Or I might be late for an appointment and you might speed walk into the bank like a big fat balless bag of WUSS and instead I’ll end up making a quick police report instead of a scene with you and your boob-waist short wearing combover ass.
But just be careful. The next person might shoot you. Be nice in traffic, people. Seriously, when did it become OK to treat people like complete shit? Does no one chase people down and confront them anymore?
