Monday, November 2, 2009

Today I witnessed a case of what I will call Passive Aggressive Vigilante Justice or PAVJ for short. PAVJ takes place on our roadways for a variety of reasons but the primary trigger occurs in the following situation: A multiple lane road has a sign which reads "Lane Ends, Merge Right (or Left)". Many drivers immediately begin the transition to the lane(s) which will remain open except for a few rouge drivers. These drivers take advantage of the newly vacated lane to move up in the traffic pack. They will drive alongside all of the other drivers waiting patiently in line and, at the last second, cut back in front satisfied that they have passed 15-20 cars and are now 3 minutes closer to work!

However, these rouges should be on the look out for vigilantes. These vigilantes will stop at nothing to bar the rouges access to their precious lane! This is called Passive Aggressive Vigilante Justice. The vigilante would not dare confront the other driver if it were not for the safety of their automobile. However, since there are thousands of pounds of metal between them and the rouge the vigilante inches forward, front bumper pressed against the tail end of the car in front, never making eye contact with the rouge but never allowing more than 2 inches of space into which he might squeeze.

I have to admit, I have played both of the parts on multiple occasions. However, PAVJ backfired once on me in a major way. We were driving back from the beach and were just south of Birmingham when traffic began to backup due to an accident. As we drew closer is was evident that the accident had happened under an overpass and completely shutdown the interstate. As a result, all of the traffic was being diverted to an off-ramp, over the connector road and back onto the interstate on the other side of the accident.

I complied with the signals and move over to the right like a good soldier ready to wait my turn in line. But wait... what's this I see in my rearview? A rouge! Flying up the left side of the stopped cars until he reached me at which point he threw on his blinker and awaited my acquiescence. However, he was not to enter, not on my watch! I inched and crept directly on the car in front of me, eyes fixed firmly ahead and he did not gain entry.... until the car behind me let him in. Within 60 seconds we felt a jolt as the rogue rear ended our car... He had been too busy watching the accident to realize that we had stopped moving and had bumped right into us.

Obviously I was furious! Not only was he a rogue, he was a rubbernecking rogue! I hopped out of the car fuming, ready to drop the passive part of PAVJ. At which point the man jumped out of his truck, came to me apologetically and explained that this was his normal exit. He lived a few miles from there and was just trying to get home to eat lunch before he had to go back to work. He was so sorry and it was totally his fault and he just can't believe that he did that. His insurance company took care of everything and thankfully the car was a rental so there was really no inconvenience to us whatsoever other than some lost time.

This brings me to my point... He was a person. Not a silver Chevy Silverado... a person. I had no idea what the situation was and assumed the worst. I think this is the problem on both ends. The rogues, in general, do not have any regard for the PEOPLE in the cars, they're just cars. I highly doubt that these people would cut to the front of a line at the Post Office. Meanwhile the vigilantes are concerned with one thing - vengeance. Think about it, what do they gain by not letting the car in? Tops you're looking at 10 seconds of time saving... maybe a couple of minutes if the rouge sneaks through a red light. It's all about vengeance and teaching a lesson.

Anyway, it just gave me something to think about. I never know the situations that lead people to cut in line like that. Maybe there is an emergency or maybe they just don't see that I'm a person. Either way, I think next time, I'll just let them in...

Two other things and then I'll be done:
1.) I looked at some people's faces today while they were driving. Based on their countenances you would have thought that they were driving to their funeral. It made me self conscious and I tried to smile and look more cheerful the rest of the drive. I think it actually put me in a better frame of mind once I got to work.
2.) Way more people talk on cell phones at 5:00 than at 7:40. On the way to work I counted 2 people talking  on phones. On the way home that number was closer to 15 or 16. I know it's not scientific but it was intriguing nonetheless.

Later...