The Republicans versus the Dems. The Hatfields and the McCoys. The upper class vs. the middle class. It's never gonna work.
As I wandered about today on my bike on this island of Martha's Vineyard brimming with the usual mixture of the pedigreed and the not so, it is not really that hard to understand why there is no forthcoming compromise in Washington.
There is such a sense of entitlement with these people who truly believe they are better than most; they have no concept of a sense of community or charity or even simple consideration. For one, they don't look at you. Why not? You are passing within milli-inches of them, why not a perfunctory nod or heaven forbid a mere smile? It's kind of creepy. Now obviously I can't really weed out the rich from the poor on a bike ride, but attitude goes a long way in helping me decide! For instance, the people who ride two and three abreast on the two-way bike path and won't move and can't believe that you aren't going to pull over for them! (Okay, I get a bit of joy out of hurling towards them full speed, I will admit, and watching their faces when it becomes apparent I would rather hit them then pull over to let them pass!) Or the group I just passed who walked across the entire road pushing baby carriages, with one girl walking down the center line. They didn't even look back occasionally to see if a car was coming. Because you see, the road is theirs. And when you pass by on a bike, they glare at you for trespassing. Just so weird.
At the beach the other day the family that pulled in beside us on the beach was clearly not happy that we had discovered their spot. (Obviously it was theirs because they paid for their beach pass, and had found the spot the day before. THEIRS. Not anyone else's who had paid the same amount of admission to the beach. THEIRS.) So to show their disapproval, they blocked us in by parking so we couldn't get by and then stretching their beach shit from the car to the water line. Nice. I must admit, I got a kick out of watching the mother. She had her three little boys all dressed up in that sunwear garb. No exposed skin for the little honeys. She was in a bikini, in her well toned body that she sure as hell doesn't get watching three boys. Yeah, I admit it, I was thinking nanny and wondering where she was. The mother sat down under her four umbrellas (seriously, wouldn't one or two work?) and the boys were not allowed to do much of anything. They couldn't swim unless their father watched them, and he was too busy hiding by his car and looking at his phone. The only reason they had brought the boatload of toys was so that they could claim as much beach real estate as possible. When it finally came time for us to leave, the father slowly moved a few toys so that we could drive on the wet sand ... not where cars are supposed to go. When we drove by, they did not acknowledge our existence as we passed, as I mentioned earlier, within milli-inches of them. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
We were up at Menemsha the other night for the sunset, and a family was sitting nearby. The woman and I happened to look at each other at the same time, and lo and behold, we passed smiles. Oh, it was so nice to be around a human being. I am not sure what these other people think they are, but their human-ness has been replaced by specialness. They are too special to be human. They are too special to be anything but their special selves!
Now I recognize this because I can be guilty of it too. But I fight it because I am not all that special and my bank account doesn't bolster my specialness either. It isn't super duper and we don't abuse credit in order to pad our lifestyle. I can't say anything about these people makes me want to be them. I certainly don't want to inspire someone to write a blog about how obnoxious I am!!!
But here we are, on vacation, and no one is interested in getting along with anyone that isn't exactly like them. So it would be seriously unrealistic to expect the already divisive Washington to get together and do what they are there to do -- work for the people. But oops, which people? The special people who deserve way more than the non-special people? Or the non-special people who are only here to annoy the special people?
The sneetches on the beaches who have stars on their bellies. Or the sneetches on the beaches without stars upon thars?
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