Its a Monday, nobody really loves Mondays. I complete a day of work full of meetings and decisions. I go to the gym and complete about 3 miles of treadmill time. Its finally time to go home, make some dinner and relax. I get on the train and it stops at Harlem, opens the doors and announces "this train will be sitting as there is police activity at the Addison stop. We will remain seated for awhile". Awesome - I'm sweaty and hungry and just want to be home - it is Monday after all. The next announcement brings even better news; "this train will go to the Jefferson Park stop and will be turning around, everyone must get off the train at the Jefferson Park stop". AWESOME! So we go to the Jefferson Park stop and get off the train. Now, I've been in the city for 11 months but really don't know how to navigate the CTA bus system too well... this could be interesting.
After waiting in line for the 56, a super intelligent and expert communicator from the CTA announces there will be a shuttle that will be stopping at all the train stops up until the California stop. Perfect! I wait in line for the shuttle. Once we board the shuttle we are on our way down Milwaukee. The display of pure common decency that I witness next is truly astounding! An older white gentlemen (lets call him Earl) is talking extremely loudly on his phone making everyone roll their eyes and start to become even more annoyed than they already were. Our bus driver stops at a couple of stops to announce this is a shuttle and people waiting for the bus should continue to wait for the next one. This is what unfolds:
Earl yells "hey bus driver - where did you get your driver's license? A cracker Jack box?". Skinny little blonde girls says "Hey relax, we are all trying to get to the same place".
Earl yells "don't talk to me you stupid Bitch".
Entire Bus goes bananas "HEY! COMMON! SHUT UP! WATCH IT BUDDY!" etc. etc. etc.
Next one of the most racist conversations I've ever witnessed happens (disclaimer: I'm paraphrasing - this is NOT ME talking!!) This conversation is between Earl (same fine gentleman as before) and Bill (middle aged large black man).
Bill "Why don't you shut up and not talk to women like that"
Earl "I bet you go home and beat your wife"
Bill "At least I have a wife"
Earl "Do you even graduate grade school"
Bill "I have 2 college degrees you fool"
And it got progressively worse from there! I saw a street sign for Belmont and hopped off, found another bus and hopped on!!! I have never in my naive years witnessed that kind of racist talk and was not about to witness it now.
2 hours and 10 min later (on a trip that normally takes 40 min) I was laying in bed completely exhausted and dumbfounded at how completely shocking people can be!!!
PS. The "bomb" was a suitcase someone left on the platform full of work papers - nothing explosive, nothing threatening, nothing scarey.
