It has been wild at times attempting to service all our calls, some customers waiting over three hours for their cab to arrive, many of course not waiting, leaving the cabbie with yet another no-show. Why is this happening? Simply, almost the entire Seattle/King County taxi driver community is sitting out the pandemic either out of fear or embracing the rare opportunity to collect unemployment, leaving maybe 50-60 Yellow cabs working to serve one thousand of more daily calls. It's an impossible task, with only a handful of fellow Farwest and STITA cabs working mostly deep south King County. Too often I come upon angry and baffled passengers wondering why this is all happening because dispatch certainly isn't informing them, instead hour after hour saying their cab is on the way.
What this means is that Yellow Cab is all you are going to get in Shoreline, Bellevue, Seattle, Burien, Lynnwood, Kirkland, Woodinville, Kenmore, Bothell, Sammanish, Covington, Issaquah, Auburn, Sea-Tac, Des Moines, Fall City, North Bend and all other communities and unincorperated areas in King County, along with south Snohomish County and a bit of north Pierce County. King County in area is 2,307 square miles, making it one of the largest counties in the whole USA, translating, as I said, into a nightmare for drivers like me trying to keep up with all those fares sitting there upon the taxi branch. Puget Sound Dispatch (Yellow) is begging drivers to come back but so far, no, everyone enjoying their government-funded vacation.
Chased
After hearing more details how the murdered black jogger, Ahmaud Arbrey, was chased and pursued by three armed white men in two pickup trucks in the city of Brunswick, Georgia, and thinking about the terror he must have felt before blasted by a shotgun, I have decided to share the many times I have been pursued by both deranged individuals and mobs. That it's frightening is beyond knowing unless you have experienced it. The first two situations I mention in my new book, "To Age 13." Also, out in rural Alberta, me and two friends were shot at, bullets flying past our heads. And in another more recent event, while hiking in Eastern Washington, someone sitting upon a ridge was actively shooting at me, bullets pinging off of boulders I took cover behind. No fun, to say the least.
1959 in Ravine Park Village, Toledo, Ohio----I was five when, one, an adult African-American chased me across a field swinging a baseball bat, thankfully my young legs faster than he was, and a few months later, two black teenagers chasing me and a friend, catching and tying me to a pole but fortunately, an adult neighbor, seeing what was happening, ran down a hill shouting and screaming to my rescue. That pole still exists.
Clark Fork, Idaho, 1969, age 15--hitchhiking home from British Columbia, a teenage girl stops in her car to talk to me, angering her jealous boy friend, the boy friend chasing me in his car, with me eventually finding safety in the dark hiding behind trees hugging the shoreline of a huge lake. In the morning I awakened to a friendly beaver swimming beneath me.
Bennett, Colorado, 1970, age 16---drunken mob of cowboys began pursuit upon a early Spring evening. I ducked into the a friend's grandmother's house, the cowboys spending hours looking for me. Later, knocking on a friend's door, asking where I was, I remained hidden behind a garage door, huge pipe wrench in hand while holding my friend Scott's giant Great Dane, prepared to attack and release the pooch upon the dumb bell cowboys.
Kelowna, BC, Canada, 1970, age16---mob of local white males attacked in the dark of night the hippie encampment located above Lake Okanagan. I was ready to do battle, wine bottle in hand but everyone fled and I joined them. Later, I rode in a RCMP car helping in the search for the mob.
Aurora, Colorado, 1970, age 16,---chased by big redneck white guy down the street. As he approached I kicked him and the chase was on, only to be interrupted by someone coming to my aid, my assailant literally ripping the guy's shirt off his back. Scary.
Seattle, 1992---a guy driving a Mercedes chased my cab for about 3 miles into Madison Park, pulling beside me after I stopped at my pick-up address and shouted, "You! You! are a menace to society!"
Seattle, 1996,---while walking to the Capital Hill Post Office, a young SPD cop, along with many others milling around looking for a bank robbery suspect, stopped his patrol car about 100 feet away, pulled out his gun and began shouting at me to drop down. Fall I did to the street as more cops inched toward me aiming their guns at my poor head. No, I did not fit the description of the bank robber. Stupid!
Seattle, WA 2008,---deranged undercover King County Transit Officer began chasing me in my cab. He was driving an old Chevy Van meaning I had no idea he was a cop. Long and short of this, I now have a letter from a previously elected King County Sheriff apologizing for the officers' conduct.
And lastly, southeast of Mount Shasta, CA, 2018,---"she-who-can't-be-named" and I were driving along a country road not far from Mount Lassen National Park, when an old cowboy in a pickup truck came across from the other side of the road making straight for us, knocking us off to the side. If alone I might have killed him but I was restrained by my companion, the old idiot thinking he was somehow teaching these hippies a lesson. What a fool! and damn lucky she was there to stop me.
And should I even detail even one of the at least 50 times drivers have chased me short distances down Seattle streets? No, not worth the effort. Yes, yes, fun and games amongst the insane 1959 to 2020, it ain't so funny, not worth the time or money.
There's Hypocrisy and then there's Mister Trump
You might recall that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President said there were only 11 American cases and they would all disappear, that was it, the problem now past. As of today, June 13th, 2020, the number of USA coronavirus cases confirmed cases number 2,142,224 with the total American death toll at 117, 527. The number of confirmed recovered victims is 854,106. 800 are still dying daily.
Trump is holding a rally next week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now in recognition that the pandemic is both deadly and extant, Trump supporters will have to sign the following online waiver essentially saying that by attending the rally you run the risk of contracting COVID-19 and dying, and if that happens, it is all your fault, with Trump taking no legal responsibility for luring you into harm's way.
"TOO BAD! SO SAD! YOU'RE GONNA DIE! BYE BYE!" could be the rally slogan. Here is the full online text:
"By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President Inc; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury."
This is beyond cynical, it is immoral but that certainly doesn't stop Trump and his cronies. Why care? We don't have to care. The worldwide COVID-19 death toll is 431, 550.
And can good the people in Oklahoma be this dumb? Hard to believe they are.
Hopelink and the Occupation of France 1940-44
Regular readers might remember a few weeks ago my feature commentary about Hopelink's actions regarding Eastside for Hire and the reasons given for Eastside losing the ability to serve the Hopelink contract. Turns out I didn't have the complete story as to why Hopelink made the decision they did, and shocking it is because their response centered around mistakes of only three Eastside operators. In a recent mandate, Hopelink has directed all of their potential providers to be fingerprinted, something not deemed necessary for at least the past 20 years. It is also important to know that the Eastside drivers, like all Seattle/King County cabbies, have previously been fingerprinted making this new requirement redundant, a bureaucratic gesture achieving nothing whatsoever.
Hopelink's overreach brought to mind Germany's WWII occupation of France and their response whenever a German soldier was killed by the French Underground, heading to the nearest French village and murdering 10-20 innocent French citizens. Hopelink then, instead of either punishing the three drivers, or can it be imaginable, have them fingerprinted, decides to KILL Eastside for Hire.
Another side to this is the harm done to their own clients, reducing even further the available providers, victimizing the very same people they claim to be helping by making them wait for taxis burdened by the pandemic. As the 1960s song went, "Bang! Bang! my baby (Hopelink) shot me down!"
Essay
This short piece has twofold purposes. The first is to display my displeasure, since my arrival back from NewMexico, of being swallowed alive by taxi. The other is to utilize "real language" toward that end.
Reinsertion into a Persistent Void
Temper me, junior, I'm a rampaging missile or hit the brakes, Casey, our locomotive is a runaway train or pushing up while pressing down suicidal, embracing the simultaneously busy yet idle taxi crocodile sharp teeth and all neither useful nor wise, all metaphorical, allusive, axiomatic or even allegorical disguise---my new reality a mechanical boom, boom, boom, one, two, three, why am I laughing, Lord Haw Haw Haw, when it's not funny, the message contradictory, not separating mouth from ears though fully expecting cooperation today, tomorrow and forever, insanity mandated by who knows who and should we care? why worry crossing collapsing bridges over turbid, angry rivers neither a major or primary or minor concern because tradition dictates minute by seconds parsing history into nothing remembered, existence singing "wham, bam, thank you spam! processed and canned gelatinous commodities prescribed diet for the marching dead, waking up early work, work, working falling into bed Joe John Judy and Fred.
No comments:
Post a Comment