Be Careful!

We have to be careful what we accuse each other of, just because we don't like somebody's looks, lifestyle, general appearance, social status, etc.

The following is based on a conversation I had with a lady who used to be a friend of mine. That conversation ended that friendship, sadly.

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She'd been shopping in Chinatown for her veggies (she was an excellent cook), and when she was walking down Hastings St, groceries in hand, somebody she referred to as "a homeless" (how would she know?) had sneezed just as she walked by, and "sprayed her" - in her own words - with saliva.

Now, if you think about it, you have to be pretty dam close (withing kissing distance, I would say) to get "sprayed" and walking down the sidewalk while somebody a meter or two away has a sneeze, sure as hell won't "spray" you. A couple of droplets at most. I'd chalk it up as "the grave risk you take" when you chose to go out in public. Not even worth getting upset about. But I guess that's the problem. I didn't get upset enough that some loser (her own words) had perpetrated this horrible offense, so her story changed. He had now "spat on her". On purpose.

I tried to explain the difference between sneezing and spitting, since her English was..."ok, but not impressive". She was getting agitated that "I didn't believe her". I told her that I was simply seeking clarification of what exactly happened. What reasons would this "horrible loser homeless" have to, well..."spit" on you?

That really pissed her off...my lack of sympathy for her and what she saw as my betrayal, so she must have decided at that point to go full throttle, make it "all or nothing" and now she proclaimed that he had puked on her. Again, on purpose, of course. She was now convinced that puking on somebody is a criminal offense, and she wanted him charged and have compensation for her "pain and suffering". Seriously! I think she started the "criminal offense" tirade with me because she knew I had worked for a while as a police officer in Denmark.

I tried to explain to her that firstly, he didn't puke on you on purpose. He sneezed as you walked by and you believe that a droplet or two may have hit you. That's how your story started out and that is most likely a sign of what really happened. You see,  It's physiologically impossible for any human being to spontaneously puke on you on purpose. Puking - also referred to as vomiting, in legal terms - is a sudden, violent contraction of the muscles in your stomach, which is actually an intestine, that sends the content of your stomach up and out and nobody can do that "whenever they feel like it". IT's simply impossible. Still, she wanted to pursue charges.

I tried to explain to her, secondly, that she doesn't know who the guy she wants to sue, is, or where he lives and if he was truly a homeless, he's not likely to have a mail box you can drop off a letter in..and do you have any witnesses.? Furthermore, if you go to the police, which you really should do if  you believe a criminal offense has been committed, they will talk to you for a bit, and as soon as you leave, they will keel over on the floor and kill themselves laughing at you. You will never, ever be able to make them press charges (and rightfully so), because the Canadian justice system, similar to the Danish and most justice systems in "the developed, Western, fairly civilized world", operate on a concept of intent. That means that there has to be intent to harm somebody and according to the Canadian justice system, anyone is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In short, You have to prove, to an experienced judge, in the court of law, that this "homeless loser" you can't find and don't know who is, had intent to harm or hurt you and really...you don't have a snowballs chance in hell of doing that. 

Then she got on the "racism" bandwagon. This was "a clear and obvious act of racism". "Lucy", I told her (name altered), "the guy sneezed on you...at best...when you walked by. That has absolutely nothing to do with racism. Besides, I have been a victim too of what could be described as racism, when I shopped in Chinatown. It works both ways, you know, but I don't run around and scream "racism" because some old Guangdong Grandma sneezes on me". Man, did that ever piss her off, I suppose. I haven't heard from her since.

My point here would be, that sometimes we all need to stop for just a moment, and put things into a little bit of perspective, before we start firebombing each other and accuse each other of all sorts of ugly things. Take a deep breath...and then consider if you are willing to lose a good friend, just because they don't agree with you and maybe understand the system a little better than  you do.

Peace and love to all!

Be good to each other!

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Postmortem:

It's really, really upsetting to me when you show lack of respect for those in need and you believe yourself to be "better" than they are. I have a problem with snobbery and will always take the side of the underdog and the fact that you believe yourself to be "superior", only tells me there is something wrong with your mind.

Each one of them are someone's mother, father, sister, brother. They all have family, just like yourself. It could be yours. It could be yourself. So maybe you should show a little compassion?

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