Monday Aug 30, 2010 – By Jalylah Burrell
On Thanksgiving 2009, I hit a man with my Totes bubble umbrella. He was an older gentleman but spry, White, rude, and buzzed off of Beaujolais or some other Turkey chaser. His graying wife on his arm, this man mowed me into oncoming traffic at the corner of Central Park West and 59th street in New York City and kept stepping. I collected myself and marched after him. “Sir. Sir. Excuse me, sir. You just ran me into the street.” His back to me, he mumbled, “Well, sorry” and waved a dismissive hand. I wasn’t having it, so I picked up the pace, called for his attention and whacked him on the arm with my umbrella. A bystander, a middle-aged White male who had witnessed both acts of violence, caught my eye and exclaimed, “You shouldn’t have done that,” and then fended off the retaliation-seized senior and his wife.
I said, “He shouldn’t have run me into the street.” My good Samaritan, and my sister with whom I had just shared a peaceful vegan Thanksgiving meal at a nearby restaurant, were concerned for my safety and chided me for putting myself in harm’s way.
In May of 2010, I yelled at an elderly woman food cart vendor. My mother, who had lost her mother the day before, was parking her rental car in midtown, blocks away from Western Union. As she was backing into the spot, this vendor beckoned her to roll down her window and then asked her how long she intended to be parked there. The hour my mother overestimated was not to the vendor’s liking, as she intended to use the spot to move her cart from the sidewalk onto the street come closing time—so she instructed us to park elsewhere, and my mom nodded acquiescently despite having circled for some time to find the spot in question.
http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/regulators-dismount-on-abandoning-anger/
On Thanksgiving 2009, I hit a man with my Totes bubble umbrella. He was an older gentleman but spry, White, rude, and buzzed off of Beaujolais or some other Turkey chaser. His graying wife on his arm, this man mowed me into oncoming traffic at the corner of Central Park West and 59th street in New York City and kept stepping. I collected myself and marched after him. “Sir. Sir. Excuse me, sir. You just ran me into the street.” His back to me, he mumbled, “Well, sorry” and waved a dismissive hand. I wasn’t having it, so I picked up the pace, called for his attention and whacked him on the arm with my umbrella. A bystander, a middle-aged White male who had witnessed both acts of violence, caught my eye and exclaimed, “You shouldn’t have done that,” and then fended off the retaliation-seized senior and his wife.
I said, “He shouldn’t have run me into the street.” My good Samaritan, and my sister with whom I had just shared a peaceful vegan Thanksgiving meal at a nearby restaurant, were concerned for my safety and chided me for putting myself in harm’s way.
In May of 2010, I yelled at an elderly woman food cart vendor. My mother, who had lost her mother the day before, was parking her rental car in midtown, blocks away from Western Union. As she was backing into the spot, this vendor beckoned her to roll down her window and then asked her how long she intended to be parked there. The hour my mother overestimated was not to the vendor’s liking, as she intended to use the spot to move her cart from the sidewalk onto the street come closing time—so she instructed us to park elsewhere, and my mom nodded acquiescently despite having circled for some time to find the spot in question.
http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/regulators-dismount-on-abandoning-anger/