Young People......
We hear about "today's youth" pretty much 24/7. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the net; "kids today" begins many, many sentences.
Tonight I was waiting in line for take-out at a Commercial Drive restaurant. The place was really busy, and the noise level was high. People were laughing, talking, eating, having a good time when this very loud male voice shouted "Shut up, bitch!"
The noise level abated as pretty much every eye in the small room fixed on the table where the yelling had come from. The female half of the couple looked mortified, and scared. She said something to the guy, quietly, and again he yelled, only this time it was "Fuck you!"
The crowd in the restaurant was murmuring, as crowds will do in situations like this one: "jerk", "poor girl", "why does she stay with an asshole like that?", but nobody tried to stop the verbal assault. When the guy stood up and grabbed her arm, saying "we're getting the fuck out of here", though, there was actual movement.
That was the moment when a young person, perhaps 16 or 17 years old, put his hand on the shoulder of the brute who was making his companion wince in pain. The brute was my age, at least, the woman about the same. The young man very politely said "Sir, you're hurting the lady, let her go." The brute didn't take this well, as one might imagine, and shouted a few choice words at the kid, but he let go of the woman and left the restaurant. Then the younger man asked the woman who was old enough to be his mother if she was going to be okay, if there was someone he could call for her, if she needed help.
Young people today.....
Tonight I was waiting in line for take-out at a Commercial Drive restaurant. The place was really busy, and the noise level was high. People were laughing, talking, eating, having a good time when this very loud male voice shouted "Shut up, bitch!"
The noise level abated as pretty much every eye in the small room fixed on the table where the yelling had come from. The female half of the couple looked mortified, and scared. She said something to the guy, quietly, and again he yelled, only this time it was "Fuck you!"
The crowd in the restaurant was murmuring, as crowds will do in situations like this one: "jerk", "poor girl", "why does she stay with an asshole like that?", but nobody tried to stop the verbal assault. When the guy stood up and grabbed her arm, saying "we're getting the fuck out of here", though, there was actual movement.
That was the moment when a young person, perhaps 16 or 17 years old, put his hand on the shoulder of the brute who was making his companion wince in pain. The brute was my age, at least, the woman about the same. The young man very politely said "Sir, you're hurting the lady, let her go." The brute didn't take this well, as one might imagine, and shouted a few choice words at the kid, but he let go of the woman and left the restaurant. Then the younger man asked the woman who was old enough to be his mother if she was going to be okay, if there was someone he could call for her, if she needed help.
Young people today.....
posted by Alphamutt at 11:17 PM
1 Comments:
Wow. Just...Wow.
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