Rich's Random Thoughts 2-8-08

RICH'S RANDOM THOUGHTS

By Richard Briggs
February 8, 2008

*On the heels of my column last week regarding manners, I had another situation that was a classic example of what I described a week ago, with an interesting twist. On Saturday morning February 2, I made a trip to the Borders Express bookstore at Washington Crown Center to make a purchase. When I got to the mall, I found it to be a little busier than I expected, but that wasn’t a big deal.

As it turned out, there was an outdoors show taking place that weekend, which is always a large draw in these parts due to the large number of outdoorsmen and women in this area. I made my way to the bookstore to pick up the book I was looking for and did a little bit of looking around.

Events such as an outdoors show always bring in more people and, many times, those people like to make stops into the many stores that make up the mall. The bookstore was no exception. Now, I have stated in the past how tall I am, so kneeling down means that I have a distance to “get back up.” I have had numerous instances where I have knelt down to look at something and, don’t you know, someone will come and stand right over top of me to look at something on the top row.

This happened briefly before I decided to move on. There were other instances where people would pass right by me without saying a word while I was looking at something, acting as if I was in their way. I was instantly brought back to what I wrote last week. As I moved around the store and made my next stop, a gentleman who was probably in his late 40s to early 50s walked right past me without saying a word. I was beginning to get irritated by all of this before I was stopped in my tracks.

I was just casually looking at something when a little girl who was probably still in grade school said in the sweetest voice “Excuse me” when she walked past me. I said to her “Sure, no problem.” Immediately, her mother pulled her aside and told her not to disturb me because I was shopping. I made it a point to tell her that her little girl did say Excuse me and she was not causing a problem. I don’t know if her mom heard me because she was still telling her daughter it wasn’t nice to be in people’s ways.

Far be it from me to tell someone how to raise their child. What this mom was doing was both necessary and unnecessary. Her daughter did nothing wrong and I told her mom as much. She was the ONLY person in the entire store who said Excuse me as she was walking around me. NONE of the adults said a word. While the little girl’s mom didn’t have to keep telling her daughter to stay out of the way of people, I did appreciate the job of parenting she was doing. There is not enough of that happening in today’s society.

What really surprised me was the fact that it took a little girl in grade school to say Excuse me while these supposed, and alleged, adults didn’t have the common courtesy to say a word, especially the gentleman who walked past me before the little girl did. It’s time to wake up, people, and maybe take a cue from some of our young people, and learn some manners and quit acting as if the world owes you something and you are entitled. Those two words, Excuse me, are not hard to say. Use them.

*This Thursday is the most polarizing “holiday” of the year. It ranks right up there with New Year’s Eve, but I think it carries even more “weight” than the ringing in of the New Year. You know what I am talking about – Valentine’s Day, the ultimate Hallmark holiday. It’s bad enough that most men probably went into debt to make their significant other’s Christmas very special. It’s not even a month and a half later when those same men have to turn around and do something else special for their significant other.

Now, I have no problem with couples sharing their love for one another. I just don’t want it shoved down my throat every other commercial on television. Jewelry stores and candy makers are spending tons of money in advertising for this one day phenomenon and God forbid the one man who “forgets” what day it is or spend the rest of his life in purgatory.

For single people, this is the most polarizing day of the year. We get singled out for being single, or looked upon like we either have a disease, or people feel sorry for us. Let me be the first to tell you, I do not have a disease and DO NOT feel sorry for me. I am single because I choose to be single. I am not falling for this act of commercialization just to justify how I feel about someone. I have never celebrated a Valentine’s Day and I don’t ever plan on changing that. It was bad enough in grade school when we had to make up those silly cards and put them in shoeboxes of our classmates with the holes cut out on top to deposit them. Now, you have to go into debt just to buy jewelry, candy, flowers, cards, and dinner and a movie, or perhaps even dancing.

Well, if others find this fits their needs, I have no problem with that. I can live with others proclaiming their love for one another, I just don’t want any part of it. I think sometimes we men get castigated on a daily basis for something silly we may have forgotten. I don’t need the guilt of having to buy something I can’t afford for one day out of the year that is not a birthday or anniversary.

For those of you who will be celebrating on Thursday, I will wish you a happy Valentine’s Day and hope those men who will be on the spot survive the day with their acts if kindness (and love). For the rest of us who choose to remain single, enjoy the day you would any other day and celebrate the position of being single and being able to do what you want, when you want, how you want, and not having to answer to anyone. Freedom does have its advantages!

*Over the weekend, I noticed in my Pittsburgh Tribune Review that the state collected $1.6 billion in gas taxes last year, and they wanted to raise the tax?! Are you kidding me?! What are they doing with the money they already collect? My roads aren’t getting any better, unless you count the interstate highways, and it always seems like they are always working on those roads. I swear the state’s colors are orange and white. Yet the state cannot collect enough money from us.

Now the governor wants to collect three more different types of taxes from us while, in the process, he wants to send those of us in “lower income brackets” a rebate check to help stimulate the economy. Tell you what, governor, I know you are now a lame duck, thanks to your re-election, and you recently endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the presidency (can you say VP Rendell, or Secretary Rendell, my goodness that is a scary thought); however, how about you just lowering my taxes, which are already among the highest in the nation, and start lowering the taxes on business, especially small businesses. You are killing the would be entrepreneur with your policies.

*Fellow citizens, contact your state senator and state representative and have them tell this governor that enough is enough!! No more taxes! Either work with what they have, or get out and let someone else represent you in office. All Rendell cares about, now, is getting into a future Democratic presidential administration. All the more reason to vote no to new taxes and misrepresentation!