Entitlement

Written by Pinky

Friday, 29 January 2010 00:00

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were coming home from the vet with our very large (and vocal) cat. We were sitting in a long line of traffic waiting - like those ahead of us - to turn left. But this day, we were in a line of about 20, not a few cars. We inched our way towards the light over the next 20 minutes or so with our cat expressing extreme dislike at the whole affair wondering what the hell was going on - a burned out bulb, an accident, what?

Turns out the problem had to do with an ADULT crossing guard who was letting kids cross regardless of the signal. That's right. An adult who should know that when a light is GREEN you wait for it to turn RED before you cross a busy intersection. Instead, whenever a single kid showed up (and as school had just let out there were many kids walking solo and in staggered groups), she would step right out into traffic with her STOP sign and all of us in cars had to stop. Even IF it was a green f'ing light!

Even more telling to me was the fact that even though it was about 25 degrees out, these kids didn't even have coats on. Now I well remember the "cool" kids who refused to wear coats (like it was manly or something to freeze), but this was more than a few - this was like all of them. Probably because they don't have to wait to cross the street.

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, we didn't even have adult crossing guards. That was left to a selection of us kids - and it was a pretty big deal if you got selected. That there are adults doing this "big" job is another story. But here's the thing: we were taught to look both ways before crossing a street. We didn't just march out into a busy intersection like it was our god given right and that those in the cars would stop for us. And we were also taught to wait for the light to be red. No dumb ass walked out into the middle of a busy street if the light was green.

I've been enraged and totally dumbfounded by the new trend of the past few years of kids just walking out into the street whenever it suits them - whenever it's "convenient" for them to cross. And I now see where they're learning it - from adults who are teaching this to them on a daily basis.

The bigger issue here is not so much the bit about crossing the street - that's just plain stupid - but the teaching of selfish, self absorbed, entitlement. I'm actually angry enough to write the schools, the mayor, and the newspapers because self absorbed entitlement is one of the most fundamental problems today in my so humble opinion. Reality shows and talent shows perpetuate this sort of ignorance that everyone is oh so much more important than the other to the point of walking out in front of a car.

Maybe these adult crossing guards need a "Crossing the Street 101" refresher?! Or maybe when one of the little brats gets hit the seriousness of this will land on someone.

Spread the Shitheadery

Email this

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments

GuyOpinion said:

Right, Left, Right
I grew up in England where we drive on the left. That's relevant what I'm going to say. Starting at about age 7 (45 years ago) I was allowed to venture far from home, maybe one or two miles to the park, certainly I walked to school every day across crossing at least three streets (roads, we call them there). And at that age we had drilled into us the routine for crossing the road - "Look Right, Left, then Right again - if all is clear, walk, don't run, across the road". This code served me well - I was never killed crossing the road, and nor were any of my friends. We had good practices taught us.

Second point. In most other countries, pedestrians are taught to look around when approaching a road. In a lot of countries they will tell you - "If you want to cross the road, you better be able to run fast".

Cut now to Los Angeles in the 21st Century. Pedestrians crossing the street routinely run out without even looking around. The worst are joggers with iPods, and young kids on skateboards. I had to train my wife, also English and who has only been here three years, that she had better not assume that any pedestrian on the roadway had any awareness that she was there when driving along. I live in a neighborhood and many times I have seen children of about 10 stopped in the middle of the street, on a skateboard, talking on a cell phone, with no apparent comprehension of other large metallic things that might be sharing that space.

This is how children are growing up now. Thanks to cell-phones, computers, iPods and so forth, children have no spatial awareness outside of about a 2-foot radius, and they are brought up in a world where they can just walk out onto a roadway without looking around.

February 11, 2010

NJKatwoman (Christy Kuppler) said:

And I thought mine was just an isolated event
A few years ago, I was in my Tractor Trailer, waiting for the left turn arrow to turn green so that I could make my turn.
Usually, you have to wait a while before you finally get your opportunity to turn, and you need to do it quickly.
As I started into my turn, just then, a young woman with a bunch of pre-schoolers stepped out into the intersection.
I stopped suddenly, and sat there blocking the intersection while her and 15 little ones walked to the other side of the
street. Mind you, she had a red signal, and the red hand flashing, "don't walk". I was absolutely aghast! She
totally disregarded the signal, and because I had to wait for her, everyone had to wait for me to get out of their
way so that they could proceed. Kids or not...a red light means "STOP" and a green light means "GO".

I thought that was a lesson we all learned when we were three years old! Obviously not for some people.
Perhaps they need to go back to pre-school.

February 08, 2010