"Privileged" Individuals

Following the Charleston shooting, an article appeared on Psychology Today's website, suggesting that self-centeredness is at the heart of racism, or at least it's a contributing factor.  I would have to agree that there's some truth to that notion, but the article got me thinking about a couple of things I experienced just the day before; instances of people taking rude actions that spring from that I'm special frame of mind.  In other words I can do this because the usual laws and guidelines of a civil society don't apply to me.  Nothing really egregious, just really rude.

I was working on refinishing a canoe at our son's place, and his property borders on an alley; a basically one-vehicle lane topped with crushed limestone.

At the end of the alley and across the street is a huge municipal recreation area with multiple baseball diamonds.  The area does have its own adequate parking area, but instead of using that and walking a few hundred feet to the bleachers, a lot of the soccer moms take up all the available street parking around the area.  See diagram below for next part of the story.

With all the available street parking used up, this soccer mom parked her huge GMC Yukon half in the alley and half on the neighbor's lawn.  I would think that even a teenager taking Driver's Ed. would know that this was not a wise, let alone courteous choice.  But this woman was special.  No, she wasn't disabled or obese with bad ankles.  Just special.  If I had had my cell phone on me, I would have dialed it in to the local police.  Jackass.

The second instance was another soccer mom, apparently in a big hurry, most likely late for something or other, and she comes zooming down the dry, dusty alley about 25-30 mph, kicking up clouds of dust.  Again, jackass.  Obviously, there might have been children in the area, but again, she was special.

Some years back, my wife actually witnessed another soccer mom, WITH a child in the passenger seat, totally blow through a four-way stop intersection with an elementary school on one corner of the intersection.  My wife was so outraged at this that she followed the woman downtown.  Turns out the woman was late for her daughter's dance class.  My wife chewed off a piece of the woman's behind.

Special privileged individuals.  Gotta love 'em...