My last two posts detailing my recent travels were chatty and happy, because I didn't want to rain on my own travel parade, but I've been saving up for a rant: What can we do about people who are relentlessly self-centered?
My trip to California with my daughter was truly fabulous. We got along famously, sightseeing and eating unhealthy food. This is what vacations are all about.
One of the highlights were our visit to Disneyland. As Floridians, we're experienced veterans of Disney World. One of us visited Disney World in its first year of existence. (Yes, I'm older than dirt.)
Just as we passed under the archway that tells you to leave the cares of the outside world behind, we witnessed the most unspeakably rude act I've ever seen with my own eyes. It was just before opening time and some people were in a big hurry, having read the guidebooks that tell you how essential it is that you force your way to the front of the crowd, so as to be the first in the park. (As an experienced Disney guest, let me assure you that it's a good thing to arrive early, but you really don't have to make yourself and everyone around you miserable by trying to be at the front of the pack. It's a big park.)
A man who was old enough to know better (in his thirties, I'd guess) was pushing his toddler in a stroller and running at top speed. Because he had no business running through that congested area, he careened directly into a young woman. She staggered back, but didn't fall. If he'd hit my eleven-year-old that hard, she'd have gone down for sure. (Then I might have had to hurt him.) This man was in such a hurry that he didn't apologize or ask if she was hurt. He didn't even pause. He just backed the stroller up and kept running.
I have a very ladylike vocabulary, but I confess to being so shocked by the whole incident that I blurted out, "What the h*ll?" The poor young woman caught my eye and shrugged, then just limped away.
In case you missed the most flagrantly antisocial part of this incident, I'll point it out. He recklessly ran into another human being with his child's stroller. While the child was in it. What has he taught that child? To look out for number one, and to heck with anybody who gets in the way.
The whole incident happened very quickly, and I found myself wondering if I should have done something. The perpetrator disappeared quickly into the crowd and he didn't have a license plate on his rear, so I couldn't report him to the Disneyland officials with any hope of having them find him. Would they have kicked him out of the park? Called in the Anaheim police and had him charged with reckless endangerment? I don't know if there are laws that apply here, but there should be.
So here's my modest proposal--courtesy police. If there had been a "courtesy policewoman present, maybe she could have had the power to ask 12 witnesses whether the infraction was truly egregious. If this jury of his peers convicted him of extreme anti-social behavior, then he could be served a citation requiring him to get sensitivity training. If he flunked that, he could be sentenced to anger management, and so on up the touchy-feely ladder until somebody got it through his thick skull that other people are as important as he is.
It sounds like a frivolous endeavor, until you realize that people who just don't recognize the importance of others are sociopaths, and they're capable of terrible things. If only there had been some way to realize that the young murderer at Virginia Tech was a danger to those around him...
Now I'm really depressed. I thought ranting was supposed to make you feel better. It should help your feelings to get things off your chest. Instead, I think I need to go lie down now. Next week, I'm writing happy-dappy stuff again.