I will mellow out... when people slow down...

in the movie adaptation of John Irving's classic The World According to Garp our beloved protagonist Garp responds to the stop sign running driver that is cutting through his neighborhood...

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some years back one of my neighbors made parallels to my altercations out front of my house with the character in this movie... it was meant as a compliment

yesterday as I stepped outside to walk the dog I waited for cross town car commuter traffic to clear before I started to cross
the downhill traffic passed and there was no up hill traffic
at the top of the hill I saw that the light had turned red meaning no cars had legal passage down the street
so... I stepped out into the street with my black dog brutus by my side
then at the top of the hill I saw it
a large white van with a satellite apparatus on the roof
one of the trucks for one of the local television stations

the van came speeding around the bend with the body of the van tilting as it tried to make the corner at speed
I slowed my progression
the van started towards breaking the double yellow line to go around me
so I stepped forward
the van locked up its wheels and screeched to a halt

the stop was not so close that I felt in any danger

as I continued to cross the window came down and this baby faced man with a rosy cheeks and short cropped strawberry blonde hair and strawberry blonde goatee started in on me about stepping into the middle of the road in front of traffic
the arrogance...
to run a red light and speed... then to tell the pedestrian of their wrong doing
I alerted him to his running the red light at the top of the hill
words were exchanged
I tried to get the information for who he worked for.... WUSA? WJLA? NBC?
any and all of these cars send their satelittle trucks speeding up and down my street on a daily basis

the drive told me he worked for FOX NEWS!
he may have been throwing this information out to distract me

it worked.... I HATE FOX NEWS!

the white van pulled away and I continued on my way
then a once been neighbor... now divorced neighbor chimed in... giving me some instructions that I need to relax...
funny.... this car ran the light in front of your house
this could be the car to that runs down his kids or mine
and I am supposed to relax

F_CK THAT!
I DO NOT NEED TO RELAX!
THAT CAR NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN!

to accept this unacceptable behavior as being acceptable in unacceptable

I do not need to relax... I need to take action... I have taken action... our block is taking action...

that guy telling me to relax... that guy needs to take the training wheels off his nine year old son's bike

next time I am going to get the plate of the vehicle and contact the driver's employer
sadly... I called one of these local affiliates one time before and got no respect... and no response...