When the power is out, remember to treat all intersections with down traffic lights as 4-way stops. This is in the manual you supposedly read in order to get your license. There is no right of way, and you do not have the right to blow through it without stopping. To help this sink in, tonight I was detoured past a 3-car pile-up with one SUV on its side in an unlit intersection. Had everyone stopped and taken their turn as they should have, this would never have happened.
If you don't have power, as much as I feel for you, it does not give you the right to shove your way into a convenience store and muscle past everyone in line to check out first. Further, when a store posts signs everywhere that their credit card readers are down and all purchases are cash only, you do not have the right to berate the clerks, leave your items at the register, and shove your way out in a huff. Yes, not having power sucks, but you're not the only one in that unfortunate situation, and I'm sure that 12-pack, 3 packs of smokes, and carton of ice cream were not necessities anyway.
Situations like these (ice storm, no power) bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Yes, there were some assholes out there over the past couple of days, but there were also many good Samaritans as well, helping neighbors and strangers with clearing felled trees and limbs, offering up warm places to stay, and such. To those who feel they are entitled to be an ass because they are without: check your ego at the door. It's not needed, and does nothing but make a bad situation worse for everyone.
That is all.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Amen, brother! I thought it was simply common sense to treat those kinds of intersections as 4-way stops, but I have been proven wrong so many times.
Were you there a few summers ago at Mahar's when we were sitting around the table in the back and the power went out? There was a second where all the conversation in the bar went silent while people processed what had happened, then we all went about business as usual while Bill got out flashlights and candles. People were pretty cool about the whole thing. Bill even told us that if anyone didn't have cash that they could work something out.
That's the way these things should work.
Yep, I was there. Tell-tale sign that Mahars is a bar of it's word and its patrons are the exact people they want to serve. Beer by cell phone light until the candles came out was fun. And I remember while Bill was in back getting lights and candles that the bar collectively ensured that no one touched the register or the taps.
We got rain. A little icing, but mostly just a lot of rain. It froze the next day.
I cannot tell you how many people in Troy forget the 4-way stop rule.
Post a Comment