R.W.A.A: Riding With An Attitude

Photo by: Joel Larios

All I wanted to do was to get home, take my shoes off and chill. Instead, as I was only blocks away from home, a young woman gets up to ask the bus driver if he was making local stops on his Limited bus route. He ignored her. She asked again. He ignored her again. She asked once more. Still no answer. She looked back over her shoulder at the rest of us who thought we heard her repeatedly ask him the same question but with no retort. Then she did the only thing she could do without getting arrested...
she reached around the Plexiglass that was keeping her from wringing the driver's neck and grabbed his mini notebook and papers. She yelled a few obscenities and got off the bus with a few of us trailing behind her. The woman walked up the block yelling that "this is why they get attacked!" referring to the bus driver.

The driver parked the bus while other passengers were still on and followed her half way up the block. The lady yelled out more obscenities and then dropped his book and papers in the gutter.

Honestly, I was a little petrified. I didn't know if the bus driver was going to run after her or what. I just crossed the street and the other young woman next to me just kept laughing and saying, "girl give him back his stuff, give him back his stuff." As we all met up eventually on the same block toward our homes, Angry Woman (as we'll call her for now) continued espousing how mad he got her! When I said "next time just don't pay him any mind, you have to be careful," she got even angrier. "I didn't do nothing. And if he hit me we both would've been going to jail!" The other woman who seemed to know her better tried to assure her that putting herself at risk including taking a chance on her court job  wasn't worth it. She added that she herself had been assaulted by a bus driver once before.

Should we think because we ask someone a question we're due an answer; are we entitled to that? I mean, when you ask someone a question, who doesn't expect a response. I know people who get upset when folks don't answer emails. But in the same vein of expectation, are we entitled to take someone's property for collateral until we get the answer we want?

I know like me, those people on the bus just wanted to get to their destination and leave Angry Woman and Silent Bus Driver on the streets working it out!  In a way though, I'm glad I was there.