You Are
Not Entitled
I have a simple message to tell you all.
It’s something that I’ve been trying to put together for several months
now and wondering if I even should.
However, recent activities have given me reason to say what needs to be
said.
In fact, the title of this article gives it away.
You are not entitled!
This commentator has seen way too many people going about with an
attitude. And I don’t just mean the
orange-skinned narcissist that currently infests the White House and his cavalcade
of sycophants and ass-kissers. I’m
talking about people with red hats and those that hate red hats. I’m talking about people on the road, in the
stores, basically anywhere both online and the real world.
All of us. And, yes, that does
include myself. I won’t pretend to be
immune to this.
You are not entitled!
I don’t know about anywhere else, but in the Atlanta area, traffic has gotten
worse and worse over the years, and I don’t just mean the volume of vehicles,
although it certainly plays a part.
There are way too many people who are following too close, dodging in
and out between other vehicles like they’re in NASCAR, and not letting other people
merge in front of them. It used to just
be people in the SUVs, but lately they’ve been predominantly people driving
pickup trucks.
I’ve seen too many people driving like they’re the next Dominic Toretto
from “Fast and the Furious”. They gun
their engines on straightaways, thinking that they’re impressive, not knowing
if there is another vehicle around the bend or up over the hill. I’ve got news for you... you’re not
Toretto. You’re not even Roman! You are “no-name generic driver #8 who gets
smoked by Roman”.
You are not entitled!
I have seen way too many people holding up traffic when the light is
green because they’re busy texting, even when it’s illegal to do so. One idiot even held up their cellphone as
though that would excuse their ineptitude.
No, it doesn’t excuse it. You’re
a self-absorbed idiot who is holding up traffic, not to mention breaking the
law!
You are not entitled!
How many times do you have to tell a salesperson to stop calling? I’ve seen salespeople continually call a
place of business even when they’re told there’s no sale to be made. It’s not “no, not right now” or “no, but
maybe later on it might be possible” or even “no, but check back in a month and
maybe that will change”. We’re talking “no,
there is no possible way we will ever do business like that, please stop
calling us”. If this is a residential
call, we’re talking about a situation where you’re threatening to call a lawyer
and filing a lawsuit. But, because it’s
a business, you can’t really threaten a lawsuit because now your own salespeople
will be pissed at you and now you have to answer to the Human Resources
department.
Seriously, where in the hell do salespeople get off thinking they have a
right to annoy you even after you tell them no?
And it’s not just over the phone. Website
ads have gotten more annoying. Website
code is being written that harass people who use ad-blocking technology, and then
they allow ads that hijack your browser and try to insert malware. They’re justifying the very need for
ad-blocking software that they try to block you from using.
You are not entitled!
Ever go shopping? Doesn’t matter
if it’s a big box store or a little grocery store, there will always be two
kinds of people. The first are the
families that show up with the handicap scooter that make it their business to hog
the whole isle. And it doesn’t matter
how wide the isles are, that family will make it their mission in life to hog
the whole isle ;and put themselves and their carts right in front of whatever
product you’re looking to get. And then
there are the families with kids that they just cannot control. They want to hide and then they want to ride
and then they want to walk and then they want something and will scream at the
top of their lungs until they get it.
And it doesn’t help when you add to that the employees stocking and re-stocking
the isles in the middle of all of that.
So now they’re blocking the isles with their stuff along with the
parents with the annoying kids and the families hell-bent on owning those same
isles.
You are not entitled!
Then there are the really annoying people... the eternal cellphone users. The ones that are eternally glued to their
cellphones, either playing games or texting, or else they’re talking with
people and using the wireless earphones.
Personally I think that wireless earbuds should come with a flag or a
flashing light or something to show that they’re in use, because I cannot tell
if the person is talking to me or talking to someone on the phone. I don’t know if they’re asking me a question or
asking the other person on the phone a question. I don’t know if they’re just plain crazy or self-absorbed
and stupid. I’m actually leaning towards
both.
And when they’re not talking, they’re texting and surfing and they’re
doing it while walking, oblivious to whatever else is around them. Worse yet, they expect the rest of the world
to accommodate them when they do it!
You!
Are!
Not!
Entitled!
Look, I get it. Technology really isn’t
bringing us together. It’s making us
further isolated. We’re not bound to computer
terminals anymore. We can do our
business on cellphones. We can multitask,
or so we delude ourselves. But, in truth,
we lose our focus on other things.
Driving takes a lot of focus and attention; even more so on the
highways, where you’re dealing with more and more truck drivers – and more
drivers who just got their commercial license.
And now you have those of us who think that we are entitled to drive
like maniacs just because we have that overpowered and overpriced vehicle with
all the technology in it. We’re just
begging for accidents and incidents.
Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to get more civil in our lives. It’s not a matter of bringing in “more Jesus”
or “family values”. It’s a matter of bringing
in more personal civility. We have to
work with each other.
And, like I said earlier, I’m not immune to this either. There are times when I fall into the trap of
thinking the world revolves around myself.
The problem is, though, it doesn’t.
I know this more than most people.
I’ve had that demonstrated to me more often than other people.
The rules of the road are not suggestions. There is such a thing as driving too fast. The right-of-way is not something that you
take. It’s something that you have to
give others. And when you’re driving on the
same road as huge semis and idiot drivers who think they’re the next Toretto,
then you need all the focus that you can give to make sure you get home in one
piece. Remember: the daily commute is
not a sprint. It’s a marathon. The name of the game is to get home safe so
you can do it all over again tomorrow.
And put down the cellphone and take off that stupid earbud if you’re not
standing still.
No, we are not entitled. None of
us are. And maybe if more of us
recognize that, we wouldn’t have so many annoyances.
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