I was on the subway over the weekend. And this kid – probably sixteen but I really have no idea – was eating a burger from McD's. And I guess he didn't like the bun. So, naturally, he full-on tossed it onto the subway tracks. Instead of, you know, the trash can next to him. Which was empty.

Also, Michael Emerson was on the platform. So that was random.

Anyway, same kid, who was with two of his buddies apparently coming back from a basketball game, got on the subway with me, my friend, and my sister, and started making lewd comments about her, which I told him to cut the hell out. He responded that he could talk about whomever he wanted, etc. But he did, in fact, cut it out as long as I was sitting there.

It wasn't worth fisticuffs (because, let's face it, I'd just end up in jail no matter who “started” it), and that was pretty much the end of our interaction.

But I wonder where this kind of behavior starts. And what the path is to correct it.

Because, you see, I failed. Yes, he shut up after I got in his face, but I didn't call him out for his absurd act of littering (the trashcan was next to him, and hardly full). I call it “absurd” because it was so egregious and unnecessary, not because it's as evil as murder or what have you. But, absurd as it was, I let it slide, and I only spoke to him when I felt it directly affected me, and instead shook my head quietly the first time he acted a fool.

The fact is, though, that although we can't police everyone for every tiny infraction, we ought to at least let people know a bit more often when their behavior is out of line. They're learning the wrong things from somewhere – whether it's their parents or their peers, or society at large – and if the people who are supposed to teach them are failing to do so, they're never really going to learn at all. And, as with the kids from last week's note, this will come to have an effect on us one way or another, even if we don't realize it.

Now, this is open to interpretation, of course. I'm not saying we should start cracking skulls when folks don't clean up after their dogs. And, no, crude though it may have been, what he said about my sister shouldn't have gotten him thrown in jail (he didn't say it TO her, after all, just about her, and she was out of his earshot).

But if people are taught poorly by the people they see every day, then maybe the people they don't really know need to call them out when they act a fool.

I should add, as you might have assumed, that the kid was black. And I'm sure I felt an extra tingle of shame, knowing I'm associated with him by some folks who lump us all together. Maybe I wouldn't have bothered to write this note had he been Asian or some such. But, well, I can't respond to that hypothetical. I wrote it because I felt it, as always. And now it's your turn to tell me whatcha think.

Peace and love,
Justin PBG