guest blog :: by mark pm (pictured, center)the gas-guzzlin' 1989 Toyota Camry is dead... (This scene should be in a movie)Dudes...what a morning. Got off of work at 7am. Got in the car, and started driving. I noticed something was definitely wrong with the engine. I decide to take it local. I drive through the city. IT shuts down at Jefferson and Washington, where this four lane street becomes one lane due to street construction. Luckily, the car failed just as I was about to merge into the one lane. Had I finished the merge and then the car crapped out, I would've single handedly fucked up traffic downtown for most of the morning, if not, the afternoon.
If something like this ever happened and I was in the "other" cars, I would be pissed. But would I get out and help??? Probably not. I'm an ass just like any other American. No one stops in America. We are our center of our own universes. The world revolves around ourselves. A Dead Jap car blocking the one lane, on the busiest street in downtown Chicago, is going to get the shit kicked out of him/her, from every driver stuck in that bottleneck. I'm glad it didn't happen but if it did, when that asshole comes up to my window and asks "Dude, can you help me move my broke ass Jap car?" I would ignore him, just like I ignore most urban folk who come up asking for change, something to eat, some methamphetamines, or to sell some socks, to pay to clothe his/her naked kids. I'm too self-centered to help anyone. I will only help, if and only if, you pay me and I won't get sued. That's the American way of life.
Rant over...Anyways, I got the car to work temporarily. It crapped out again and I think it's done. The Camry is currently parked at Elston and North Ave. If you want to steal the radio, go ahead.
Roy's response:
mark, you should post your disgust with society on a blog like bjflores.blogspot.com. it may be very therapeutic.
for some reason, i think if your car died in sao paulo or parts of paris or manila or moscow or countless other places around the world, you'd get "helped" out of your wallet and possibly your life. it's human nature, not american nature.
i dunno if you should conclude with that generalization about american life - remember how those guys at the decemberists concerts wouldn't take my 5 bux or my 20 bux for their heniekens? no, they just insisted that i drink for free. quite un-american, according to your rant.
dave's comment
mark, my deepest sympathies go out to you for experiencing such inconvenienced hardship. no sarcasm here. i'm not sure if i should interpret your ranting as simple observation or as a bashing to the american way.
either way, i would have to side with roy on this topic. i don't know if there is one single perfect country on this planet. is there one? maybe malta? or iceland? the U.S. of A. is certainly not perfect. we have our faults. we make mistakes. we make judgements. as a super-nation, we act as if our country is god's gift to humanity. however, this country lends us freedoms and opportunities that most other countries cannot. i don't have to be a supporter of our president and still be considered a loyal, patriotic citizen. there are good samaritans out there, and they are amongst all of us. we seem to be more helpful and giving when we are not so inconvenienced which like Roy said is a basic human tendency.
that's just my 2 cents. =)
i just realized that, taken out of context, the title to this guest blog doesn't make any sense. without getting too much into it... it is the opinion of some, that people in this country are so caught up in their own lives that they won't stop to help people with car trouble. which, i think, is mostly true. but others believe opposite, that americans are willing to help you if you just ask. with which i also agree. the argument is valid for both sides, but in the end, i decided to take the positions out, because they weren't meant for public consumption.
guest blog :: by mark pm (pictured, center)
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