What Would You Do ...

Stepping off the bus at the last stop ( 10 minute layover ) time-point this afternoon.  The radio dispatcher calls "code 50" says Ottawa Police Service is asking for assistance 2 different missing individuals. I stopped to listen at the door - the driver & I were alone on the bus.   For those not familiar with OC Transpo protocol, Code 50 is an "Everybody Listen Up"!!    It is used to broadcast important information ...  Being myself I heard it & that the police were looking for "Eyes Wide Open". Some elderly woman was out there ...   I personally hope it wasn't my or your  mother, and here is why.

Halfway through the description of the first the driver expresses his inconvenience ... he was dissatisfied with the fact that I was not disembarking.  I guess it was cutting into the time he would have alone to fantasize about eating donuts, or whatever fat people do when they are alone on a bus making $28.00/hour or more.    I told him I was listening to the code 50 ... but stepped off the bus before they started the second description. He closed the door pulled the bus ahead thirty feet and parked. He remained on the bus - alone.

At first I was enraged! Then I began to wonder who this fat fu_k was and who he might care about enough to pull his head out of his ass. Would he have listened to the descriptions if his mother were missing? If his teen daughter were long overdue to return home, would he then desire that every available pair of eyes be on the lookout? If, heaven forbid, he were being assaulted would he want someone like me or you to care enough to intervene?   If the nice girl from the MacDonalds drive through were in trouble  ... would he care?  Would he care if it meant that he'd have to get out of his car and drag his sorry fat butt to the counter to order the crap that is slowly killing him?

My point is that the ATU, his union, frequently try to convince us how valuable they are to our society.  They want us to think of them as caring and effective assets to the community.  They want us to think that they are invaluable to us - when they are not on strike.  But this man does not care enough to listen to a missing person's description ... because it cuts into his break time. He is part of the problem.    He and the ones who would rather run a rail crossing than put the safety of their passengers first ... the problem, not the solution. 

He is special; the rules do not apply to him - he wears his hands free unit on his phone; probably to conceal that he answers his phone while he drives a city bus. ... I am wise enough to see through his fat ass.

But just last week an old man died .... I don't know the circumstances but maybe one more pair of eyes might have made for a different outcome. Maybe one more pair of eyes ... maybe a bus driver getting paid more for his 10 minute break than some people make in an hour.

But maybe not ...