Morning Vent

The other day I saw a car with two bumper stickers. One said "United We Stand". I'm sure you've seen them - with the Patriotric American Flag waving in the backround. On the same car (I live in Florida) is a sticker that says "Why do they call it tourist season if we can't shoot them?"

So I'm wondering, who exactly is it we stand united with? Certainly not the tourists who come here every winter. (The very same tourists who bring much needed business into the region)

Last week a woman in her 80s was parking her car in a supermarket that I often use. I have three young children and I always worry about the way people drive through parking lots, looking for a spot, not looking for children. This woman pulled into what she thought was a spot, completely wedging herself between two cars. In the process she pinned a four year old under her car, hit a woman, and knocked the woman's 10 month old out of her arms. Bystanders had to lift the woman's car to get the four year old.

The local paper has a website with stories on it so I checked the site frequently for upsdates. I didn't know the family but I was worried about her and her children. On this site you can write comments on the news stories. I wish I had copied the comments because they've long since been removed. Quite a few people thought the woman's license should be revoked because she was elderly. Then people started in about how "those New Yorkers" and "those Northerners" that come down here and terrorize us on the roads.

It wasn't long before someone said how "in her New York Jewish accent" she "showed no remorse" when interviewed on the news. Someone else posted that this was racist and then someone else posted "oh please, don't be so PC, just because she hates Northerners she's racist?" Many people jumped to the defense of the woman who hates "New Yorkers"

I've lived here almost 15 years and I've long since learned "New Yorker" means "Jew" to most people down here.

So because she's Jewish she what? Hit the family? Pulled into a spot that wasn't a spot? Showed no remorse? I'm so confused on that aspect.

United we stand, indeed.

Sad.