Life in the City - September Shock in DC

In the 9/5/12 Washington Express newspaper, the DC Rider column entitled “’September Shock’ Is on the Way” warned the public that with fall comes traffic gridlock. For those of us long-suffering commuters who relished in the peace summer brought, this was an unhappy reminder. After repeated episodes of my car being hit and almost hit, it didn’t take me long to hate the fall with a passion that can only come from someone who has lived other places and knows traffic doesn’t have to be this bad and drivers don’t have to be such jerks.

In year four, I made some grassroots efforts to “educate” metro DC area drivers but didn’t get very far. After many more years of behavioral observation and “accident avoidance” to quote an All State commercial, I concluded change will not come easily because drivers’ overt behaviors are deep-rooted in lifelong emotional immaturity.

Montgomery County is a disappointment to me. When I moved here 20 years ago, I was excited to live close to the nation’s capital and in a wealthy area. Little did I know what idiocy and immorality such wealth brought. LindaJo McKim starts a devotional (These Days, 9/17/12) by saying “children struggle to learn how to control their tempers.” Unlike the adults in her article, adults here have not” learned to control [their] tempers” nor “found ways to release [their] frustrations without harming others.” They have not “learned [they] cannot have everything [they] want.” A recent example (8/21/12) is a blurb in the Washington Examiner about two Montgomery County women fighting over a pair of pants in a department store.

The problematic area-wide behaviors are not just physical – cutting people off, pushing and shoving to get in line, etc. Verbal assaults often accompany the bad driving and extend into electronic communications. Mostly because some easily offended person overreacted to being told they were wrong.

I’ve been subjected to the worst verbal insults from people who are allegedly educated, well-paid, born and bred. Their ignorant communication style more befits hillbillies and rednecks than decent folk they purport to be. Of particular note are several people in my subdivision. One verbal abuser ironically boasts in his email signature he is a “peacemaker”. Given what he wrote to me, it’s no wonder he spends so much time trying to patch things up. The thing that kills me is they don’t realize what they are doing because it is so fundamental to the area culture.

To me this is all a sign of the apocalypse whether you believe in the misrepresentations of the Mayan calendar or not. If you’re an ignorant obnoxious selfish jerk who doesn’t care about anyone else or what you do it WILL negatively impact others.