Is Rude The New Normal?
By
Leonard Zwelling
For those of you who do not live in Bellaire, crossing Bellaire Boulevard going north on Third Street is not an issue. But, if I want to get to the Walgreens on the corner of South Rice and Bellaire Boulevard from my home in Bellaire, going up Third Street makes sense. However, traffic can back up on Bellaire Boulevard going west and it can be hard to get across. Often, when traffic is thick and cars are stopped at the red light on Bellaire and Rice, people leave a space for cars to cross on Third.
On Tuesday, January 7, I had to pick up an antibiotic prescription for the sinus infection that befell me following the visit from my grandsons. I was lucky. All three lanes of traffic on Bellaire parted and I was moving through. All of a sudden, the car in the far-right lane started to back up as I was crossing. She was headed right for me. I slammed on the brakes as she then took a hard right toward Walgreens. I know. How do I know it was a she? Stay tuned.
She made her turn and preceded me into the Walgreens parking lot taking a while to park as I walked in the door toward the pharmacy in the back where there was a line. She got out of her car after I got out of mine. She came in behind me (that’s how I know it was a she in the car) and raced past me to get ahead of me in line. She was a young, shapely blond in skin-clinging tights that showed every aspect of her figure. Why did that matter? Who would go out looking like that? Only a young person.
I was so stunned by her behavior to first, almost clip me with her poor driving, and then her need to rush ahead of me in line, that I said nothing.
I then went home to see some of the Trump news conference from Florida where, as I understand it, he took questions for an hour and would not rule out seizing control of the Panama Canal and Greenland from countries with whom we are allied while musing that fusing Canada onto the United States would be a great idea.
Hasn’t he been to these places? None of them is America nor ever could be unless seized. Why would you insult the integrity of these sovereign states by basically threatening to invade them to take what you want? Doesn’t this seem rude to you?
Well, Mr. Trump is no stranger to rude. He belittles anyone he does not like, even those he eventually makes his Secretary of State-designate. Remember “Little Marco.” What I cannot understand is why these seemingly sane and accomplished people want anything to do with him unless they simply want to be next to power. I seriously doubt any of them will have real power as I cannot see Mr. Trump giving up any final decisions on anything. I really think that Trump will grow tired of Musk getting so many headlines soon enough and send him back to his rockets.
I get lambasted all the time about my position on Trump, but I maintain that he is mentally unfit for the presidency (but so is Joe Biden). My guess is that he floats some of these outrageous ideas just to get a reaction and scare the hell out of everyone, even our allies.
But just like the woman at Walgreens, Trump is mostly just rude and self-centered. What that will mean for the United States will start to be unveiled in a few days.
