"Now don't you understand man universal law
What you throw out comes back to you, star
Never underestimate those who you scar
Cause karma, karma, karma comes back to you hard."
The Lost Ones, Lauryn Hill
If you plant tulip bulbs, tulips will grow. If you plant poison ivy seeds, poison ivy will grow. If you want something good to grow, don’t plant anything bad. If you want something bad to grow, don’t plant anything good…. Make sure that what you want to grow is what you planted.
-Alexgeorge
Yes, I’m gloating, because of something that happened today. My mother always says “you reap what so sow,” but most of the time the distance between the two are far apart. Today I saw some sowing that was so shameless it made me so angry that I had to speak up about it. My words fell on deaf ears, however, the reaping shortly thereafter, for me, and everyone to see.
I had the taken the Max from Beaverton to meet a friend in Portland for happy hour. The local train system, called TriMet's MAX Light Rail system connects Portland, Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro and the Portland Airport. For the most part, it works on the honor system. TRIMET doesn’t enforce people to pay to take the Max Light Rail. They expect everyone to pay to use it, and the penalty for being caught on the Max-line at $115-$250 is pretty steep, and not worth being too cheap to pay the fare (an adult two hour fare is $2.30 and an all-day pass is $4.75). Because of a sticker on my company ID, my use of the Max Light Rail is free all day, everyday. I just have to make sure I have my company ID on my person in the rare event that their transportation security is on board to check to see that everyone has paid to use the Max Light Rail. I’ve been here almost 2 years and use the Max light most every weekend and have only been asked twice to show my id as my free fare.
In each compartment on the Max Light Rail, there is seating closest the doors, that are designated for the elderly and the handicapped. Anyone can sit there, however in the presence of the elderly and the handicapped, one needs to get up to make the space available.
Today, an elderly woman entered my compartment of the Max Light Rail in a wheel chair. Her lower limbs were cut off at the knee. She had no calves, no feet. Our compartment was fairly empty, and in the elderly and handicapped seat sat a man who was 57 yrs old. I knew his age because he used it as his excuse for not moving when asked to do so. This able-bodied man got on at the Beaverton Central stop with his gym bag. This was the stop I normally get off and on at as my gym, 24 hr fitness, is about 40 yards away. I’ve seen him on the treadmill regularly.
“Sir, can you please let me move my wheel chair where you are?” she said to him as the trains door closed behind her.
The man ignored her, and she was heard saying, “sir, sir?” I turned around to her wheelchair in the aisle, and she was facing the man who was obviously ignoring her.
Then he looked up at her and, pointing to the sign on the window where he was seated, said, “this sign says designated for the elderly and the handicapped. I’m 57 and that makes me elderly.”
“But I’m in a wheelchair,” she said.
“So. I’m 57, and I’m elderly. I have as much a right to sit here as you do, “ he responded.
“But as you can see, I’m not able to sit just anywhere on the train, and you can,” she said.
“Look woman, I don’t care about you being in that wheel chair. I didn’t put you in there. I’m 57 years old, did you hear me?” he said. Just before using the race card, he added, “you white people act like you’re entitled to shit. You don’t deserve to sit here just because you’re white! I’m gonna be preaching about you at church on Sunday.”
“Preaching about me?” she asked.
“I’m a minister.”
And then she said the obvious; “but sir, I have no legs, I can’t sit just anywhere,” to which he replied, “what’s that supposed to mean to me? That I need to let you sit here because you have no legs? That aint my fault. I’ve been in the military. I fought for this country. I’m gonna sit any damn where I please!”
I have a special place in my heart for children, women, the elderly, handicapped and pets. Not that anyone one should be harmed anyway, but I get really upset and even take it personally when those mentioned above have been mistreated, disrespected or abused. I’m not confrontational at all but I couldn’t, with a clear conscience, sit there and pretend I didn’t hear what I had just heard, so I asked the man to please sit a few rows back and let the woman move her wheelchair there, when he informed me that I “was selling out for taking the white woman’s side, and that we niggers gotta stick together.”
When he said that, the train stopped at that next stop and two women wearing transportation security jackets got onboard, as some passengers suddenly ran out at other entrances to avoid getting a ticket. When one of them asked to see my ticket, I showed her the sticker on the back of my company ID and she moved on to the wheel-chair bound lady seated in the walkway. When they told her she had to move to the seating designated for the handicapped, she informed them that “this gentleman won’t move.” She pointed at him.
When they approached the man, they scolded him for his actions, and they asked for his proof of ticket purchase. After telling him the sign doesn’t just ‘handicapped, but that it also says the elderly’, they ignored him and asked him again for proof of ticket purchase. He searched in each pocket the way one would when they can’t find something for which they were looking, and a clear plastic bag fell out of is pants pocket. The woman said, “you don’t have your ticket, but you brought marijuana onboard?”
He had nothing to say. At the next stop, they wrote him a violation and removed him from the train. Since the train departed shortly thereafter, I couldn’t see what happened next, but I’m pretty sure he had wished he was kinder to the wheel chair-bound woman. He would’ve still gotten a violation (if not able to escape the train like the other people did) though.
