Model Citizenship

I could have been street pizza today - a permanent part of the grill of an Audi. Enter four guys on the way back from lunch, standing at a corner waiting to cross the street. The light turns green and I suggest we cross (despite the fact that we didn’t get to the crossing button in time). One of my colleagues responds with concern,” Are you crazy? We are in Orange County.” We all agree and stay on the sidewalk…

Merely seconds after agreeing to wait and still facing the crosswalk spanning Michelson, a black Audi A3 zipped right in front of us after running the red light by using the cross-walk to our left. Stepping into the crosswalk a moment sooner would have meant certain demise!

While we were waiting on Teller to cross Michelson from east-to-west, the Audi approached the red-light on Michelson from the south. There were two cars in each of the straight lanes and one in the left turn lane. Seeing that he would likely have to wait at least 30 seconds for the light to turn green in his favor, he threw caution to the wind and made an abrupt move for the right hand turn lane…slowing only slightly as he approach the corner, he made an angled right turn. What he did next bordered on insanity…

After making his loose tight turn, our model moron continued - crossing the intersection by straddling the crosswalk spanning Teller and turning back onto Michelson. I have included a visual which illustrates this madness in full color… give it a little click-click-click-a-roo!

So, basically we have another entitled idiot who clearly believes his phantom stature in life justifies breaking laws and putting other people at risk. This was truly an amazing display - apparently, his senselessness knows no bounds… Definitely not a Model Citizen, but a Model Idiot indeed!

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Restaurants, movie theaters, libraries, grocery stores and shopping malls are not dare care centers. Young children require adult supervision in public places . To ignore this fact is to do a great disservice to children and only serves to enforce the escalation of entitled behavior (not to mention spoiling everyone else’s night out)…

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This entry is a milestone of sorts - it is the 30th entry on Model Citizenship and the first story related to parenting…

While I am myself a parent, I would never claim to be an expert at parenting. In fact, anyone who claims such capability likely has serious issues of their own… I do however have a sense for what is appropriate when it comes to kids in public places. Some examples of potentially volatile situations involving children and the public realm include: Babies on airplanes, Babies at the movies, Toddlers at the grocery store and so on…

In this particular story, the forum happens to be a restaurant. Surprised? I didn’t think so… We all know there are endless potential pitfalls with the child / restaurant relationship: The fussy child; the food thrower; the runner; the silverware drummer; and the ever-popular screamer. You have to be on top of your game to pull off a sit-down dinning-out experience that does not incite a riot at your favorite eatery… Enter what apparently was ladies night out - to Claim Jumper.

In this story, we open with three mothers sitting at a 4-top (restaurant speak for a table and 4 chairs). The conversation is light and typical. The restaurant is filling up so their voices are just slightly elevated, but judging from the casual tone at the table this is likely a somewhat regular meeting. As our meal progressed the full scope of their night out became apparent. Apparently, these not-so-model mommies established a kiddie table for five in a booth near their 4-top.

The “absentee supervision” was not a good idea.

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