BLITHE SPIRITS

I witnessed a man run a stop sign in a school zone this afternoon. The driver that had the right of way stopped his car in front of the offender and shared with him his anger and contempt that not only did the idiot full on run the stop sign while little kids were crossing the street, he also ignored the horn of the oncoming car which had the right of way. If was funny how all the people you think would laugh at the angry man, laughed at the angry man and one progressive hippy, walking his 5 year old daughter towards the cross walk, was moved to shout, "he made a mistake dude! Give him a break!"

The angry man replied that people aren't allowed to make mistakes like that while driving a 3000 pound vehicle that can kill other people when the driver ignores his surroundings. The hippy was not impressed.

The angry man got back in his car and moved to the school crossing 30 feet away which has no actual stop sign, just an old man waving a micro-stop sign on a stick. He stopped to wait for the kids and parents to cross. As he watched the progressive hipster and his little girl walk into the cross walk the angry man couldn't help but ask him, "how about now? What if I just made a mistake and ran over you because I ran this stop sign? You gonna be OK with that and cut me some slack?"

I listened to NPR again today. I know, it's a bad habit. They had a journolist* on who was appalled at the terrible murder of the ISIS photo-journolist that was recently executed by his captors. She was upset that the Italian and Spanish governments will pay millions to recover their journolists out there covering the terrorist's side of the war while countries like the US and Britain won't pay ransoms. As I recall her words, she said that it was like journolists are seen now by the people they cover as walking ATMs.

She has a good point. Journolists are unhappy at reporting just the news; they need to tell it from the perspective of the underdog who has been forced to adopt the tactics of murder, terror, intimidation and suicide bombing. If they weren't such blithe spirits I'd almost feel sorry for them. That said, I do feel genuine regret for all journalists who are captured and killed or die on assignment as they cover the wars and conflicts and write down the facts for their readers.

Journolists? Not so much. When one dines with leopards, one should really examine the menu before committing to the meet. Those spots don't change.

*Journolist