Public Transit

I am not embarrassed to say this but I use public transit. In fact, I don't have a driver's license and only until recently with the prospects of a new job that would require me transporting materials and things to various places around the city, have I thought about a license.

I also am a tree hugging hippy (minus vegetarianism - that shit is for losers) . Who does not like $4.30 gas prices and carbon emissions.

However, there are always disturbing things about public transit...

1) Bad ass kids - Last night on my way to see a friend there was a group of adolescents on the bus the youngest being possibly 12 and the oldest no more than 17. The first disturbing moment with the kids was the fact that these kids were loud as hell. Do these children have hearing problems or auditory processing disorders - I'm loud as hell too at times but on the bus, ummm. No. Next problem. Rolling a blunt on the bus. So I don't know how many of you all know about Blair Holt, this young man was 16 years old and died on the CTA saving his friends from the bullets that killed him. Even before his death the CTA had cameras on most of its buses and now after his death there is not a bus in the city that does not have a camera. I'm not the one to say that kids should not be smoking reefer...well they really should not. However, rolling your blunt and talking about where you're going to smoke it at on the bus is not cute either.

2) The Buses in the white community are much more efficient, clean and dependable than in the black community. Nothing makes me feel blacker than waiting on a dirty stankin ass bus on the south-side of Chicago. It's a rites of passage. I always want to complain but then I realize there's no point in that its not like it will get any better.

3) You're constantly subjected to other peoples politics, body odors and dumbassness in close quarters. So I'm on my way home after seeing my friend and it's bad enough as I'm walking down 79th street some dumbass almost kills me. I finally get on the train, then the bus. As I get on the bus the aroma of someone's high quality greenery enters my nostrils and everyone else's on the bus. That was problematic for a number of reasons that I decline to discuss on here. The other thing about this bus that at least 75 people were on board. So as I get closer to my house, I'm standing next to a gentleman and his friends. Apparently his daughter made him a bracelet with different color beads. One of his friends is like "Is that a rainbow? Cause you know what that means?" And this crazy ass woman goes into her whole homophobic ass tirade about the rainbow and what it means, and how if this guy keeps the bracelet he may get hit on by a swarm of gay dudes. I had to sit there and listen to this bullshit cause its not like this dumbass was intelligent enough to have a conversation with me about her homophobia and/or unless I wanted a south-side ass whoopin or shooting, I could not move anywhere else on the bus...

Other than that public transit is a great thing. You get around town without having to worry about parking, gas, no-driving ass people etc.