The Civility Police

My friend S, the aforementioned Tri-State ex-patriate and FL attorney, and I share many things in common. Most relevant to this posting is our despair at the utter lack of manners and civility displayed on a daily basis by our fellow Floridians.

Motor vehicle operation is one of the main areas in which Floridians (and Miamians, in particular) most egregiously show the world that they don't give a shit about their fellow man. Whether it be atrocities committed while moving or parking, I have witnessed so many poorly executed lane changes, parking attempts, etc, that my road rage has actually improved. Another driver has to do something extraordinarily dangerous to even catch my attention these days, much less inspire anger.

The same does not apply for S. She is the captain of the civility police and will not stand for this type of behavior. I, for one, applaud her efforts, especially her newest initiative, described below in an e-mail she sent me this morning:

so i have this new thing i do at work. when i drive into the parking garage there are a lot of awful people who dont know how to park a car - and they end up taking up 2 spots. Usually my little mini can cram into these little spots - but sometimes people are so awful that they purposefully park straight in the middle of the two spots.

Now you are asking - what is it that s does? There is nobody there to yell at - and I dont want to actually scratch up a car or anything.

Well, my new thing is writing notes to people and sticking it on their windshield. A few weeks ago there was a jerk who got a note and today was note #2. Today's winner was blatantly parked between two parking spots this morning (on the 4th floor of the garage) and as i passed it i was like geez he is a jerk. So i had to go park up on the 11th floor and when i got out of my car I took the elevator to the 4th and wrote a note - stuck it on his car and then went to work. Yes - it was a bit out of my way. And true I wouldn't have gotten the parking spot - but he is still a jerk. The note today said: You are a JERK for taking up 2 parking spots. Next time be considerate of other people in this building and park in one spot.

So it wasn't that mean - but it still said what was necessary.