Not who you'd think

This morning I was riding to work and a fight broke out between two passengers. One was an older man who clearly had mental issues. The other was a young, well-dressed woman obviously on her way to work downtown. Guess whose fault it was?

The young woman.

Apparently the guy said something to her. She never told us what he said, but whatever it was offended her. She responded by hitting him several times. She even stood up to get a better angle to hit him, then sat down right next to him again. He responded by cringing and saying "leave me alone!"

Some of the other passengers tried to stop her, and pointed out that the man obviously had mental problems and she should just leave him alone. The girl was on an empowerment trip and wouldn't leave it alone. This happened right next to the driver, who ignored it and just kept driving. Several people had to tell the driver "we have a problem" before he stopped. Then he just sat there without saying anything to the passengers. After a few minutes we figured out that he wasn't going anywhere. People started to get off the bus--including the aggressive girl. Once she was off, we told the driver that the problem was over and we could keep driving. He said he had to wait for his supervisor, even though there wasn't a problem any more and the aggressor was gone. Luckily I was near the light rail so I was able to walk a couple blocks and catch the train instead. Still, it ended up making me late for class and it was a shlepp. All because a girl overreacted when she should have known better.

What the hell happened? First of all, the girl was young, only 19. If she's dressed up to go to work, that means at best she has a GED and no higher education. Still, she was dressed very fashionably. Clearly a girl trying to make the best out of a difficult economic situation. She's young and struggling and doing the best she can. Also, she had a very dark complexion. She may have been half black, and possibly raised in a black family. I've noticed that many blacks in San Francisco feel the need to fight back if they think someone is treating them badly. Like Chris Rock once said: "Young black men: If someone steps on your foot in the movie theater, let it slide."

Can I blame this girl for her black heritage? Of course not. Even since the Civil Rights movement, blacks have had to struggle for equality every day. This girl has probably experienced a lot of oppression simply because of the color of her skin. Maybe the retarded man called her a nigger. If he had called me a kyke, that would have infuriated me as well.

At the same time, there have to be limits to these things. He was a mentally handicapped man. And in any case, violence is not the answer. As long as this girl thinks she can solve her problems by hitting people, she will never succeed in raising herself out of her bad situation.

But the real bottom line is she has harmed other people in the process. Every person on that bus was frustrated and probably got to work late, adding to their own stress on a Monday morning. 60 people got a little crankier. They will spread out through this City with bad attitudes and it will spread to others. And bit by bit, this City is getting less like LA and more like New York.

I often say, if you have your own issues and you're hurting yourself, that's your problem. What I find unacceptable is when you allow your problems start hurting other people. That's what this girl did, and that's what I find reprehensible. But by the time I got off the bus, she was long gone and I didn't have anyone to yell at. Grrrr.

Other news: one of Yelena's best friends, Les, moved to SF yesterday and I helped him move in. I'm really glad he's moved nearby, and I know Yelena is too. Welcome to the City, Les.

This past weekend I went to a Civil War reenactment in Knight's Ferry (near Modesto). It was a beautiful site and I had a great time. That will give me the energy to get back to the grindstone. Also, I found out that my unit won first place in the SF St. Patrick's Day Parade again. Woohoo!

Meanwhile, Yelena left town last week to take a couple weeks in the tropics with her parents, to celebrate graduating from pharmacy school. I already miss her, but she's earned the vacation. I got an email from her this weekend and she's having a great time.

Finally, I've got over a thousand pictures to go through now, I promise I'll be working on them in the next few weeks. We have the St. Patrick's Day Parade, the reenactment, and other stuff.  Also, I'll be upgrading my website to make it easier to interact and leave comments.  Finally, at some point I'll be lowering the prices of my gallery in an effort to increase sales.

Hey, law school takes a lot of procrastination.

J