Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition, Part II

Roads not plowed, cars getting stuck, trying to walk on sidewalks not shoveled after said car won't move, cabin fever.....people are getting a little testy around here.

I have been bitching here pretty much all week about the state of the streets in my neighborhood of Shadyside. The main street of Ellsworth Ave got plowed TODAY. Six whole days after the first snow fall.

But that's not the reason for this post.

Every day this week my coworker came in to work telling us how they plowed her street AGAIN the previous night. Two nights ago, she said they were up and down her street THREE times. I asked her what she paid in taxes a year. She pays 1/4 of what I pay here in Shadyside. So it has been an ongoing joke all week. Our streets aren't done. Hers are because she lives in a neighborhood where the city maintenance workers actually live. They make sure their neighborhoods are done, while leaving the three neighborhoods that have the highest tax bills(Shadyside, Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill) untouched.

Anyway, this morning she walked into work in a rage. She told us that the city was starting this blitz through the neighborhoods one at a time to clear the streets. So far, so good. But the nerve of them, she says, they are starting in the Hill District. She went on a rage about how none of "those" people work. And why should they have their streets plowed, etc, etc......you get the point.

Being as "opinionated" as I am, I say something like "well, that seems to be a common sense place to start. Start in town and work their way out, an so on.

That didn't go over too well. Again, the rants about how none of the people in the Hill work so they don't need their streets done.

I went on to remind her that there are brand new housing developments there with the starting price being $200,000. She told me anyone buying a house in the hill has to be a "stupid jagg-off."

OK, so now I getting pissed. I also told her that alot of downtown buses leave the city by way of the hill (including hers). She told me they should do that main street and don't worry about the rest.

I know.

So I tell her that most of the people in the hill are dependent on bus transportation. If they or their buses can't get up and down the side streets, they can't get to their jobs. Jobs that don't give administrative paid leave because of a snow storm.

Didn't care.

Now I get her. I tell her that if I used her reasoning and stereotyping, than most people in her neighborhood are white trash who don't want to work also.

I thought she was going to kill me.

I went on to explain. I know four people from her neighborhood. She is the only one that works. Two are on public assistance, and the other one is on disability from a city job he had three years ago for six months. So if I were to judge her whole neighborhood from the people I know, I would say, yes. Most are while trash lazy jerks.

Then I ducked.

She didn't get the same conclusion.

I asked her how many people she knew who lived in the Hill District. She said none.

I didn't think so.

She then when on to tell the story about the ONE time she saw someone using food stamps to buy steaks. She tells the same story all the time. I said if "they" all do that every time you are in a grocery store, why don't you have more examples.

Ya know, I know there are people out there who abuse the system. Lots of people. Some people don't know that they are doing anything wrong because that's all they know. They didn't have a chance in life, even before they were born.

My parents didn't have a racist bone in their body. We never talked like that. All black people are not lazy and on welfare. All Irish are not drunks. All Italians are not in the mafia (hmmmm, ONLY JOKING!). For every black person abusing the system in the hill, there are whites in my city neighborhoods doing the same thing. I can't count the junkies I grew up with that get social security because they are heroin addicts. Aren't all white people who grew up in Lawrenceville heroin addicted, food stamp abusers? (Joking!!!)

I told her to go watch Precious, then she can tell me we all start out on equal playing fields in this world.

She would have slit her wrists by age 10.

Oh, and I almost forgot. She never misses church. How typical of them catholics! (I'M JOKING!!!!!) I think she needs to listen more closely to the homilies.