April 06, 2003

Enough is Enough!

Sunday. It's laundry day. The last two have resulted in me discovering the bottom rung of society as well as realizing that the laundromat is the worst place ever. Today was no exception to this general trend of horrible laundromat experiences, but I think it was the most significant because it was very upsetting to me. Let me describe it from the beginning.

I woke up today at around 10:30 a.m., wanting to get laundry done by 12:30 p.m. and head to the library when it opened at 1 p.m. I got ready to go, took a look at my computer, and it said 11:57 a.m. I was like, WHAT?! So I looked at the calendar, and sure enough—D.S.T.! SHIT! How did I forget? This virtually ruined my day from the start, because I'm a very methodical person and this blew my schedule away completely. I spent the next fifteen minutes fuming about Daylight Savings Time and how it's such an antiquated tradition, considering it was first used to stabilize cross-country train routes in the 19^th century! I finally got my stuff together and headed to the laundromat.

Things were looking up, as I got two machines as soon as I reached the laundromat, and saw no signs of the homeless menace that plagues the place usually on Sundays. After loading up the washer, I headed over to McDonalds, spent about 20 minutes in line as there was some guy arguing about how he shouldn't have to pay a $0.50 fee for using his ATM card on a $5 purchase. GOD DAMN YOU! If you want to pay by credit card for something so small, you DESERVE to pay that fee dammit! Stop arguing vainly. No, the fifteen year old high school student taking your order cannot change the policy of an international corporation. I hate to break it to you, asshole.

Anyway, I returned to the laundromat, and was peacefully eating, after loading up the dryers, and I thought to myself: Wow, I got lucky today—NO BUMS! Just as I said that, in walked this bum—shaved head except for one part on the back which had a pony tail that extended past his shoulders, wearing a kilt composed of rags, and a dirty Free Scotland t-shirt with holes ripped in it. The rag kilt also said something about Scotland but I didn't want to read it because underneath the kilt (which was sagging a little low), you could see the guy's entire ass crack—he wasn't wearing underwear! Ew!!! God, what a character!

He proceeded to sit down on the bench/table and start unpacking his bag of shit (it must have been shit, because it sure smelled like that). I thought he was setting up camp or something! What the hell are you doing? Do you think you live here or something? GET YOUR SMELLY ASS OUT OF HERE! But it was about to get worse. He grabbed one of those roller carts and dumped the contents of his bag—scraps of paper, torn up books, a whole pack of Duracell batteries, a bottle of hand lotion, dry erase markers, and a sign painted of the Scottish flag. He then started loading the washer with SCRAPS of cloth and RAGS, and then TOOK OFF HIS SHIRT, and threw it in the wash with the other shit and turned on the washer. So now here's this guy with no shirt, and a KILT that reveals most of his backside. Wonderful. I was repulsed not only by his appearance, but also by his distinctive odor that had managed to evanesce around the entire room and assault the olfactory sense of all those in the room. This was just the beginning.

As if on cue, in walks in a homeless woman wearing a NET in her hair. Like a full on fish net that could falsely trap a dolphin or something. Maybe she stole it from a tuna company because it was fashionable. Freakin' bums. Anyway, she walked around the room, did a head nod to the Scottish guy, and then left. But not before she managed to add to the smell of the laundromat. Goddammit—normally laundromats smell fresh and clean because of all the detergent and stuff, but whenever I go, it always smells like urine. I hate life. A lot.

I was itching to get out of there, but I had just barely started my dryers and I need to wait at least thirty more minutes. In came in a guy followed by his three kids—two girls and a boy—all between the ages of 3 and 6. He told them to sit down on the bench while he went to go find an open washer and load the clothes. The kids were cute and funny, talking about nonsense like all kids do, not aware of the lurking menace behind them. The Scottish piece of shit who had just finished starting his washer, was now trying to arrange all the garbage that had come out of his bag. He kept coming closer and closer to the kids and I watched growing ever more furious and apprehensive at what he was trying to do. Two of the kids got up and ran to their father, but the youngest girl continued to sit at the bench. Then the FREAKIN' ASSHOLE BUM started to reach his hand out towards her as if to pet her, but at that very moment she made eye contact with me. I didn't know what to do, because I was certainly not gonna sit around and let that stupid piece of shit stroke her or something!!! I called to her and just as he was about to make contact with her hair, she got down from the bench and came to me. I told her that her dad was calling her and so she ran over to him. I then gave the ASSHOLE SCOTTISH BUM a very, very dirty look. He just turned away like the cowardly asshole that he was. I was shocked and so angry I could barely contain myself.

In the mean time, the laundromat lady had realized that the bum had spilled all of his chips all over the floor and was trying to sweep up the mess. The bum said something like There is no problem. I just want all of you to leave me alone, and then underneath his breath Stupid bitch. I almost said: We will leave you alone when you LEAVE US ALONE, YOU CHILD MOLESTING PIECE OF HORSE SHIT! You have the audacity to enter the laundromat, a respectable business, when you have absolutely no business there—washing a few rags does not constitute laundry—and then you harass all the customers and try to PET a little girl! And you want us to leave you alone? You are absolutely nothing to us but a burden. Your very existence is meaningless and futile—a burden NO ONE WANTS, NEEDS, OR ASKED FOR. And you want us to leave you alone? Who asked you to come in here? You want to be left alone, go crawl under the rock you came from and stay there. No one asked you to come out. No one wants you to come out. No one asked you to act like the laundromat was your home just because you don't have one. No one asked you to molest little girls.

I was sickened with anger and then I thought about all the ass clowns who support these characters. The bum-sympathizers, always willing to offer an excuse for the actions of the bums. It's not his fault—he needs the money to live. It's not his fault—he was just drunk. It's not his fault—he was on drugs when he did it. It's not his fault—he just likes to rape young girls. That's pure and utter bullshit. You can't keep blaming the environment for all the terror that the bums bring upon normal society and all the crimes they commit. IT IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE ENVIRONMENT IF YOU MOLEST LITTLE GIRLS! It's because you are a sick, sick bastard who ought to die or better yet be killed. These sympathizing assholes make me more sick then the bums themselves. Let me ask you this: what if the circumstances had been different and that girl had been molested by that bum? Would you still blame the environment? Would you still exonerate this piece of human garbage? If this guy violated a three-year old child and you sympathized with him, I really think you deserve to be a victim of his crimes. Then let's see how sympathetic you are. It's quite easy to sit around on your high horse and be open and tolerant, but I saw what might have been done to this little girl and I can't understand your points of view. I won't understand your points of view.

As I was walking home, I saw that whole family sitting at a nearby coffee shop, and I thought about what might have happened. That guy could have ruined that girl's LIFE. Who knows how many lives he has already ruined, and how many he will ruin in the future. I remember having a talk from the police officer in CalSO class about safety in Berkeley so we can answer the questions for new students and I remember thinking that my answer would be something about how we live in an urban environment, but the homeless people are usually harmless during the day time. I thought about that some more and realized how relative the term harmless is. Sure the bums are harmless to you if you are an 18-year-old college student walking with a group of 3 other people. But what about the little kid who gets separated from his or her parents for just a moment. How harmless are the bums then? How safe is it to walk around Berkeley? And why the HELL does everyone just pretend that the bums aren't the scourge on society that they really are. I have had just about enough of them!