A karmic beat-down on Sterling...

moufaisbad wrote: i have had run ins with this guy while walking a dog. The dog poops on the street, I clean it up, take the bag with me, guy starts SCREAMING at me. I start arguing with him b/c i have no idea that hes *nuts*
I walked away and was pretty t'eed but I didnt hit him
Yay Me!

You're lucky...that whole thing occasionally ends with the guy kicking the offending dog (but not the owner).

Thanks for everyone's weighing in on this.

To clarify, I don't advocate violence except in self-defense of one's self or their loved ones (be it child, dog, spouse, friend, etc. -- as for the child vs. pet debate, I'm not a dog person by I wholly respect those people who treat their animals as close companions and members of the family).

The point of my post (and I suppose the point of the non-reaction to the witnesses of the event) was there was a measurable sense of Schadenfreude at play on the street this past Monday.

In my small hometown their was a similar bitter old man named Charlie. Charlie would go out of his way to aggravate everyone. He would swear at us kids at the bus stop doing nothing but standing there. He would refer to my father as a "fucking farmer" (an odd insult from a high-school drop-out who worked as a janitor to my dad who had a master's degree in physics and worked as a carpenter; most of the farmers I knew in my home town likewise had advanced degrees and were quite prosperous). Hanging out at the local post office he would rant about "niggers and spics" ruining the country." He would go to local school budget votes and make a big show of voting "no" at any proposal because "fucking kids didn't deserve his money" (money he earned as a janitor at the same school before his retirement). When some local citizens came together to restore a 19th-century building and create a new recreational greenway on an abandoned railroad bed, Charlie would show up unannounced and begin insulting people for their "worthless stupidity and waste of time."

Flash-forward years later and he grew older, weaker and more ill. His dog died and his wife died (a lovely woman who was his antithesis). He wound up alone and friendless in a government-sponsored nursing home that a local service club of which my dad resided as president would volunteer. We went one year around the holidays to visit with the residents of this facility, hand out holiday baskets and play card games with them. When we got to Charlie's room, he looked up at my dad and my brothers and slurred out "fucking farmer." My dad said nothing, and quietly closed the door to the guy's room and we walked down the hall to the next room with Charlie's crackling voice starting to scream behind the door. Charlie died about a year later and he was buried with no one in attendance but a priest (his daughter didn't even go to pay her respects).

Closer to home, my mom's father Glenn similarly spent his life angry at the world. He too was always free using racially and ethnically charged language. When my dad started dating my mom in college, he wrote a letter to the dean of the university making all up kinds of ridiculous stories about my dad and suggesting he should be expelled from the school. When my dad became a successful businessman, started a family and settled into some roles in the local government of my hometown, my grandfather's visits became sessions in his preposterous insults against my mom, dad, brothers and any friends who happened to be around. He thought our lives were a waste. Glenn eventually went completely blind, got sick and died. Even my mom didn't cry when she got the call from her mother.

I guess this guy on Sterling has brought back my childhood memories of Charlie and my grandfather Glenn. For some reason, he is mad at the world and he takes it out on anyone in earshot. He kicks dogs. He waves his walking stick threateningly at people, often missing within inches. He screams racial insults at passersby. He tells children he'll kill them simply for walking by the building in which he works and lives.

As near as I can tell, the teenage kid from this week was simply cruising by on his bike when the old man chose to get into it with him. This was obviously the wrong choice. When the old man hobbled over and got right in the kid's face and started saying things like "I will hit you in the throat with my stick and murder you" I'd said the gloves were off at this point. The kid even took a few steps away on a couple occasions, making like he was leaving, and the old man continued to hound, harass and go at him. A younger guy who was with the old man stepped in a few times and tried to pull the old man away, but each time the old guy shrugged it off and went back at the teen. When he was knocked to the ground, the guy continued to try to get into with the kid.

I wish no ill will on anyone, but I believe you get back from the world what you put into it -- hence the karma at play. This guy's contribution to our neighborhood and the world is venom and violence.

He will not be missed when he leaves the planet for elsewhere.

Mamacita wrote: And sterling2000 goes for the WIN!1!!!

If I could have I would have punched the old asshole too. I'm a very feisty latina.

Thanks, but not trying for a win or to out-zing folks here. Just trying to provide some context that I initially lacked in presenting.