Friday, April 25, 2014

The New Form of Bullying

Picture a couple of average, white, young men with a little facial hair,hanging out watching CBS or Fox report on bullying,and bemoaning the sad state of affairs that gets some of our more tender kids bullied at school by some kid with a nasty attitude. They decide to go for a bike ride. One on his Lemond, another on his Moots, they ride onto a 2 lane street in a busy commercial boutique neighborhood. They keep to the right until a Porsche passes. They pull out into the center of the northbound lane immediately in front of an old Cadillac Escalade driven by an old man(me),with his equally old wife, that has to slow down not to get too close onto them. With no regard for the cars behind them, they occupy the center of the northbound lane and pedal along with thier narrow butts high in the air as an exclamation point to the disdain they have for the occupants of the(now)several cars they are slowing badly. There is a good distance of clear southbound lane, so the Cadillac(I am the old man driving it) pulls out and passes the bikers. It is as though the bikers suddenly realized how badly they were stalling traffic. They began to pedal almost frantically. At that point, I realized that I had somehow actually insulted them, and they were CHASING me. Traffic had slowed down due to some street parking, and I could see these dudes were really pissed off, and were going to confront me. One of the dudes stopped in front of the car and the other approached my window. I think that at that point, I was supposed to be quaking like an Aspen leaf in the wind. I put my car in park, and rolled down the window. I believe I said something to the effect that "you arrogant, entitled, dickheads need some manners, and need to learn the rules of the road. I was not aware that bikers paid any road tax at all." They seemed surprized that I did not keep my window shut and quiver while they posturedaround the hapless offenderof thier righteous self declared entitlement. It ended with one of them assaulting my rearview mirror and then they rode off. I got a grip on the bacbag of the rearview mirror attacker, but he slipped the grip and fled with the parting invective "damn conservatives"! I wonder whether they gained any insight on the two types of bullying they carried out in one bike ride. Maybe my bumper sticker condemning socialism or supporting the Wounded Warrior Project was what set them off. Avagadro602