Jan 18, 2008

Blow up on the CTA

I could not believe this actually happened on the train as I was coming into work today. I was already in a bad mood because it -26 in Chicago (with the wind chill) and as I got on the train after waiting for around 10 min this guy started begging people for 75 cents. Now I'm not sure if it's just me or if others feel the same way but at 0630 in the morning I don't want anyone talking to me, much less asking me for change (don't get me wrong I am a morning person). After he went through our entire car asking people for change he moved to the back and THIS is really what bothered me.

I was reading my Redeye when all of a sudden I started to smell smoke. It turned out that this guy that was just begging for changed decided he was to good to follow the law and started smoking on the train. That was it.. I don't know what happened but I snapped at the guy.

Me: Hey you know there is no smoking on the train right (in a loud voice)
Him: Are you the cops or something
Me: It doesn't' f*cking matter there is no smoking on the train or on the platform so put that s*it out.
Him: (as he's walking past me getting on a different car) You need to mind your own business

I could not believe no one else on the train said anything to this guy. I guess he figured that since he was black and basically everyone else on the train was white that they would not say anything to him for fear of "making the black man mad).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a big and bad guy however I'm not big on smoke and at 0630 in the morning I did not want to be bothered with it. To be honest I was wondering if he just went to a different car and continued to smoke his cigarette.

But I want to know what you would have done if you were in my situation. Would you have said something or just ignored it.

2 comments:

JUSTIN said...

I probably would have joined him, haha.

redgalaxoid said...

I would normally have said something to him, but I remember one time (I was working at an amusement park in the US) I told a black lady she couldn't smoke there (specially around kids), and she started yelling a lot of things, from which I only understood "You ain' nobody, ya fool!!!". After that, I never dared to say anything to a nicotine addict again...