We've Got Too Many Home Grown Idiots

So there I was, feeling all kinds of good after watching the Inauguration, listening carefully to the new President's speech, scanning the tearful yet happy faces of the crowd, and almost convinced that with concentration, cooperation, tolerance and hard work, we as a people could pull our country, our culture, and our future out of its man-created cess pit, and be a positive force for good in our limited universe. Then, without looking, I reached over to pick up the ringing phone, and had my nice feelings drown in the vitriolic nastiness of a voice at the other end belonging to someone who couldn't be bothered to learn how to use a telephone and who didn't have the manners of the hairball my cat threw up yesterday.

Can you imagine? A rapid fire, near illegible voice asking for someone unknown whose retort when told he had a wrong number was "Just shut up, you Bitch!" The nicest thing I could hope for someone like that is that his genitals rot and fall off before he contaminates our gene pool beyond hope of recovery. But, alas, it's probably too late for that hope, because he didn't sound all that young for a misogynist. Should he be married and should his wife finally have her fill sufficient to tie him up in a bed sheet and beat him to death with a Louisville Slugger, I'd vote for her acquittal in a New York minute.

First off, I get a great many wrong numbers. Part of that problem is that my number is only one digit removed from the phone number of our local Second Presbyterian Church. But the other half of that problem is that most of those trying to call the church either have excessively fat fingers, are driving with a cell phone when they call, or simply can't be bothered to pay attention to what they're doing. But it isn't only the church number that brings me grief. Certainly, a few calls from very old sounding voices probably pertain to their eye sight, and those are forgivable, as are the ones that have simply transposed a number whether due to carelessness or dyslexia. Always forgivable are the people who are polite, who repeat the number they used in an effort to discover the problem and then give an apology. They are few and far between.

I almost feel sorry for the ones who simply don't make note of an area code, but either not using one or using the wrong one is just not an excuse. I mean, really, how long have area codes been in existence? I silently hope they are forced to pay for a long distance call, even if it is less than three minutes long. Also inexcusable are those who are told they have a wrong number, just hang up, and do the same thing a second time, then act as though it's my fault that I'm not the person they want. Hang a sign around those necks proclaiming them TSTL. That's too stupid to live for the uninitiated.

And, of course, TSTL brings it all back full circle. Motivational exhortations have their place. Messages of reason and hope have their place. Speeches to communicate plans and directions to solve recurring problems certainly have their place. All these efforts are laudable and, indeed, necessary. The problem with these kinds of public talks is not with the speaker or with the message or with the volume or reception. It's with the carbon life form receiver. It doesn't matter how great a speech happens to be or how much effort has gone into its creation if it only echoes through the empty space between the ears of the brainless.

The crux of our potential problems now and for the future is that our society is permeated with far too many individuals who are (1) ill prepared to control their own impulses, (2) ill prepared educationally to comprehend what they are told or envision consequences of their actions, (3) ill prepared physically and mentally to be an activist for the betterment of themselves or others, (4) totally unaware and uncaring about anything within their purview, (5) hung up on revenge and/or retribution from who ever is handy, and (6) or are simply reprehensibly nasty, vindictive, greedy, uncouth, ignoble, and basically down right stupid. These are the people we are simply stuck with. They come out of the woodwork when you least expect it, to spread negativity far and wide. They are able to suck all pleasure out of any good moment, be it a collective moment or an individual one.'

As a nation, we are already attuned to those who seek to cause us national harm. We can almost smell hatred as easily as we can smell our own fear in our sweat. We are also almost attuned to the corporate and/or financial wizards who have neither the time nor intent to consider the welfare of anyone outside their immediate self interest. We've had to learn that by being duped so often. What we aren't tuned into are those of malevolent intent on a more personal or randomly broadcast wave length. The people who are like little clouds determined to rain on your parade, or blue birds determined to shit on your head, or rabid dogs intent on biting you in the ass while spreading their virus. There is nothing to protect us from these forces, no simple way to identify them until they've struck, and no way to weed our collective garden of their spreading infection.

The truly bad thing is that these people were created here. We made them and nurtured them. We have both literally and figuratively fed them and given them shelter. Unfortunately, they are legion, and I met one on the telephone today.