Door Dings and Other Such Nonsense...

All I can say is that by the time this Robservation hits the streets, the election, for better or worse, will be over and done with. It has been a long, drawn out embarrassment for the entire United States. Whether the winner is a clear political outsider who has said some questionable things in the past and had an up and down business career or whether the winner is a pathological liar who hates the Constitution, who will do and say anything for political gain, has broken the law, violated standards of conduct for the use, storage and dissemination of classified material, lied to the American people countless times, has taken money from governments that hate women’s rights and hates and kills homosexuals while making a complete mockery of the US justice system, I don’t think many people will be totally enthused about either winner.

As for me, I am going to talk about a couple of things a bit more important. Not really but here goes:

1. Door Dings: Okay, I hate them.

I mean, I really hate them. What the heck people? Look, I am not a fanatic who washes his car three times per week and waxes the finish every time I hit a bug but I do try to take care of my stuff. That is why when someone looks at a car I have had for 10+ years they comment on how good it still looks. Is it a little bit of work? Yes, but if I am going to throw down $XXXXXXX for a car, why not take care of it? That is why when I return to my car whether at the market or in the employee parking lot and I see that wretched door ding making my car look like a golf ball, I get pissed. Look, if you don’t want to take care of your stuff, fine. But the fact that you don’t care about other people’s property shows us the type of person you are. It doesn’t take a lot not to bang your door into somebody else’s vehicle. It is not that hard folks. I feel bad writing this because if I had to guess, the vast majority of folks who read this paper are not the culprits here. All I ask is for people to show a little respect for other’s property. If you can’t, please move to Mars. Thank you.

2. Self-Check Out and Chicken Wing Bars:

This floors me. I mean, really, really floors me. The Winn-Dixie near my house on the corner of Vaughn and the Bypass used to have four self-checkout counters. Most of us like them because we can walk up and process our purchase fast and easy. In and out is what I like. Usually you can avoid long lines since these days it seems most places only have two to three registers open anyway. Well, one day several months ago I walked in and bam, no self-checkout. They were all taken away. What??? So I asked one of the managers what the deal was and he said that too many people were stealing stuff. Really, people?? Stealing so much stuff from the market that they had to close down the self-checkout?

I really do not know what to think here.

One, it puzzles me and two it really irks me. There was so much stealing going on that this feature was ruined for the rest of us. Unbelievable. Actually, not really but you get the point. Then I was walking toward the back of the store and noticed the chicken wing bar they had was gone. They had a warmer with about six different types of buffalo wings. You walked up, put them in a container and paid for them up front. Not at the self-checkout because the hooligans had already assured that was closed down. But alas, it was gone. So I asked one of the workers what the deal was and they told that again, there was so much theft that they had to shut it down. One worker told me they would find chicken bones on the floor, behind rolls of toilet paper, in fact all over the market. And again, another benefit was shut down because of criminal behavior.

Unfortunately, I know these are the signs of the times but come on people. This boorish behavior has to stop but I know that many people unfortunately simply do not care. Look at what happened to the Montgomery Mall. Once the nicest mall in Montgomery, before it closed for good, it became a place to avoid because of the criminal element present there. I guess the first clue is when the police put a branch office in the mall, you know it is about time to leave.

It just bothers me to no end that so many people today simply do not care about either their behavior or the behavior of others. It does amaze me, however. I myself, could never just walk into the market, stroll up to the buffalo wings, stuff my face and go about my business filling my cart full of stuff, putting just one or two items through the self-checkout and walking out the door with stolen goods. Maybe I am the Neanderthal here but I simply don’t see it. That was definitely not the way I was raised.

3. Hit and Run - - Really?

I was driving home from the Atlanta airport a couple of weeks ago and I saw some guy switch lanes and smack another car in the far left lane. The guy that was hit slowed down and pulled off to the large left shoulder but the other car sped up and bolted out of there. Seeing what was happening, the other guy also sped up and the last I saw was both cars, likely 100 mph or faster, chasing each other down I-85 South. Again, really?

I guess what I am getting at is our society is clearly on the brink of social breakdown. People clearly break the law and common rules of decency

and many people simply don’t care. Politicians break the law and there is no accountability. People target and shoot cops and yet it is somehow justified in the minds of idiots. People walk up to strangers and punch them in the face hoping to knock them out and video the entire thing. In the background, you hear other hooligans laughing as someone face plants into the concrete. Sexually explicit things are growing on television every day and people who find that behavior sickening are seen as the crazy ones. Have any of you seen the Heineken beer commercial where Neil Patrick Harris is standing next to a guy barbequing and asks if it is “okay to flip another man’s meat?” C’mon, on what planet is that acceptable because only a moron cannot see what is implied there.

Unfortunately, it seems as though in almost every aspect of our lives we are expected to accept this behavior as normal and to correct or not accept it is seen as being intolerant. Heck, one presidential candidate, I will not mention her name, said that the Christian church needed to change its doctrine to be more in line with current values. Uhhhh, no! But I am sorry to inform some folks but there is right and wrong in this world whether they want to admit it or not. We need to do a better job condemning what is wrong while raising up that which is right. It really is not that hard to do the right thing.