Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Humanity Never Disappoints

I work in customer service. I love it. I really do 'cause I get to help solve people's problems and tend to make people' days a lil bit better. My name labels me a defender of mankind but the other night something happened that forced me to question the hearts and souls of all men and women just for a moment. How can you defend the people if they are what you despise?



Two women had an altercation over a parkin' spot. One hispanic woman about forty with three daughters of different ages and a caucasian girl about twenty. The hispanic woman claimed the girl had told her "You need to learn to speak English" and then spit on her. They walked into my store as I'm helpin' another customer. I notice them walkin' through the doorway where the girl and the daughters were all callin' each other "stupid bitch". The hispanic woman then spit on the caucasian girl. Hit her right on the cheek. The girl then calls the police and both are ticketed.



I can't tell you how furious this made me. People spittin' on each other? God damned disgusting. I wanted to jump over my counter and shake 'em, make 'em realize that they were in a store for civilized people. Make 'em realize that people are s'posed to be civil to one another. People ain't s'posed to spit on each other like monkeys that fling crap at one another. We should be able to have a real discussion about what's botherin' us. Physical actions should come as a last resort.



A punch in the face or spit on the cheek doesn't make anyone right or wrong. A punch doesn't make red turn blue or up turn into down. In fact, to those around you bein' the first to throw a punch usually puts you in the wrong. A punch won't change someone's ideas. Hittin' a member of the Klan doesn't make him love people that got some color to 'em. Fightin' doesn't usually do much to settle an argument. So a fistfight for your side of the argument isn't really worth it.



I'm not really sure but it's never seemed to me that sumthin' like a parkin' space was really worth fightin' over in the first place. I've fought for sport and I've fought to defend myself. Never has it occurred to do more than call somebody a "bastard" in my car over some drivin' discourtesy.



When handlin' a conflict I find it best to take a minute and ask yourself "What are you really arguin' about?" Just take a breath and figure out if you're about to say sumthin' stupid over sumthin' stupid. If it's just a parkin' spot or bein' cut off in traffic, is it really worth it? What's an extra 50 feet to walk? Most of us in the U.S. are over weight anyway, a lil walkin' wouldn't kill us. Or is it that this issue had racial tensions hidden in the conflict? That's possible I suppose. Both of 'em have prolly had bad experiences or at least ignorant views on each other's culture. So, bottom line chalk it up to both women bein' short on patience and feelin' wronged. Odds are they ain't evil. But bein' a decent human bein' the day before doesn't justify what either of them did either. I'm glad they were both ticketed. They were actin' like animals and despite our human nature I believe that people have the potential to be better than we are.



Odds are they are lovable and funny and a dozen other wonderful things that they weren't at that particular moment. It wasn't either one's proudest moment I'm sure. I think one of the most important things people should know is that nothing is absolute. Not everyone is good. Not everyone is evil. Not everyone is any one thing. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone acts selfishly from time to time. Everyone has so many sides to them you can't say that people are anything but everything.

You want that little nugget to take with you and think about? Here it is: If you expect to be disappointed by humanity, you won't be disappointed. People aren't perfect. We do the best we can, I believe. And yes that means we're jerks sometimes or that we aren't as good as we could be. But I think at any random moment most people are tryin' to be good or better than they are. If a man walks a hundred miles he's bound to fall sooner or later. Just gotta keep in mind we all do and offer those that get tripped up by life the love in your heart instead of anger and misunderstanding.

And don't spit on people.

No comments:

Post a Comment