Survival of Who? What? WHAT!!!!

First of all, Darwin was right, for the most part the fit survive very well. Following this, those who are most fit survive the best (sometimes too well). Alternately, the less fit struggle, and the least fit do not make it - often tragically. Now at times, the fit can be accused of facilitating the demise of the less fit, due to their aggressive self-pursuits, but I am noticing more situations like the one pictured, where the least fit exit largely of their own volition.

Yesterday afternoon, as I drove past a middle school, the loitering summer school enrollees brought forth a great example of what I mean. As I approached, I spotted a beefy Black pre-teen kid lift a struggling, but laughing, Latino kid as if he were a sack of spuds, only to throw the kid into my driving lane. Yep, you heard me - smack dab in front of my approaching 5,000lb auto. I stopped abruptly, wherein dumb Black kid retrieves the still laughing dumb Latino kid, only to toss him into the center lane of traffic, in front of another car. SOB!

While preparing for his third toss, I yell for them to get out of the street, which only gets me called all sorts of names I won’t repeat (by both). I then exit my car toward the kids, who are still blocking traffic with their ‘throw my buddy Hector into traffic’ game, I am now so mad that I can only think about which arm to rip from its socket first. Thankfully, the kids back down and move to the sidewalk. I drive on home, needing a vodka to calm me down.

So what did I learn, you ask? In sum, people, especially kids, are stupid and many will expire, slowly or in a flash, by their own doing. Too bad, I say, but I can’t do anything about it. I need to just chill to the inevitable fact that I am going to see folks do some amazingly dumb shit that threatens to get them killed or maimed. I also learned that letting them suffer or die, from a safe, comfortable, budget-minded distance, has nothing to do with my ethnicity, racism, class-ism, my compassion, or my humanity. It’s just the smart thing to do.

James C. Collier

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