England Comes To America

I have been sightly amiss not reporting on various taxi meetings that continue ever on.  Part of it is that I have had enough.  Friends and colleagues alike express disbelieve when I announce that June is it, I am done with political related activities.  Upon request, I will stay on the commission into July if my replacement isn't found.  At that point I would no longer be the Chair as we are rotating responsibilities, the Vice-Chair taking over.  What differs me from the majority is that I instinctively reject objectionable and usually conventional requests.  My response to the Selective Service System back in 1972 was just that.  You want me to do what? 

Currently the City of Seattle and its various levels of government are expecting an acquiescence I am not interested in associating with.  The further away I can be from such nonsense the better.  I no longer enjoy sitting in the front row seat.  One friend said today "but we are starting to gain some achievements, making some progress" which is true, I replied, "but you will have to continue on without me."   Too many folks  mistake my taxi money making talents as some kind of commitment or even affection.  As my friend Stacy knows, I am the accidental cabbie.  Like a social scientist, it has been an interesting experiment, taxi the living cultural lab. During the commission meeting, one non-taxi member, expressed astonishment that one of the two members of the demand study is coming from the United Kingdom.  As I told him welcome to taxi!

I know some will find this assessment harsh, but simply the message being delivered here is "when you don't care you don't" even though you say you do. I am past believing that anyone at the City and County cares what happens to the taxi drivers.  "Of course we do!" is their protest.  I am not buying that product, no, not at all.  Why import someone?  Is everyone on the City Council a closet Anglophile?   Doesn't anyone remember that there was a war fought in 1776?

 As previously stated, I already know the results.  Part of the problem is that the City of Seattle has a "middle-class everything must be college related" approach and mentality.  The governmental folks have been trained to accept Oxford over the street.  The only way they would accept my knowledge is if I presented my Harvard Taxi Doctorate and an published thesis.  Being knocked over the head for twenty-five years isn't the proper learning process they respect.  Only the formal diploma will be accepted.  All other credentials originating from a diploma mill, lacking authenticity. In their eyes I will always be illegitimate, an odd infant wailing away.  The question I have is what ever gave these people the right to hold such erroneous opinion?  Why conventional culture, who or what else?

Meeting With The New GM

Last Tuesday our driver committee met with Tommy, the new PSD general manager. He created a positive impression, presenting himself as someone governed by commonsense.  When I arrived at 74 South Hudson, he was crouching beneath a bush picking up garbage.  He views himself as an equal amongst equals, not interested in pretense or superiority.  My prime concern is that the PSD Board of Directors has thrown this very nice guy into the boiling cauldron.  That they didn't choose someone in-house says everything you don't want to know.  Even my less-than- sympathetic oldest sister asked why I wasn't interviewed.  I wasn't offended because despite my knowledge I understand that I am not the usual or conventional figure.  I am what I am said Popeye the Sailor man (or in my case, hippie-man.)  Regardless, the new GM will do fine.  Sincerity is a plus.  That is all the situation truly requires.