On the way back from Orange today, traffic stopped on US 290 outside Elgin so that the fire department could put out a grass fire that was burning on both sides of the road. I could see the smoke for several miles as I approached and traffic seemed to be moving through it, but then it stopped. The firefighters must have arrived just as I did because there were only a few vehicles between the fire crews and me so I watched them work the fire and was impressed by how quickly they had the blaze under control.
The thing that got me was that while we were sitting there, I watched the moron in front of me flick two cigarette butts out onto the highway while the firefighters were working. I noticed she was reading a newspaper and perhaps didn’t notice the flashing lights, smoke whipping across the highway, and firefighters hosing down the results of some other fool’s inability to use an ashtry. Maybe she didn’t realize why we were all stopped when she casually flicked not one but two butts out her window. I watched them roll around and smoulder on the asphalt. Fortunately they died before the wind caught them and blew them into the dry grass.
When traffic started up again, I passed her. She was smoking, probably looking for a clean stretch of highway to torch.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
The banality of evil.
And the evil of banality.
Jeffery Hodges
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Even better!
Or – yikes! – wose.
Plus … the weevil of anality.
… whatever that means.
Jeffery Hodges
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A stretch perhaps, but: people sans civility