THE BACK OF THE BUS

THE BACK OF THE BUS 

The world is completely different now. I mean, after this massive COVID-19 Situation, it's a 9/11 all over again and I'm wondering if we can ever go back to the old world of being okay with standing less than six feet apart from one another. And we're certainly not through this situation currently anyway. We still have a lot of things to get through before that, despite what the moron holding pressers is mouthing off about.

I'm still confused on how the President could even think that "the cure isn't worse than the sickness" in terms of getting back to a functioning economy and pushing to roll back on the policies of safer inside/in place or whatever it's called in terms of trying to combat this corona virus situation.

I had thought that Los Angeles was on track to defying any potential of rolling back that, but then I see one crazy thing...  D.A.S.H. buses are still running on time, and more than that, they're running for free.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation announced Monday that its DASH bus service will provide free rides on all its routes in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Riders are asked to board buses from the back in order to maintain social distancing between drivers and themselves. The front door will remain available to people who use wheelchairs and need to access the ramp.

I get that people need to work, and many need them to get around in basic social life, but China beat this by one major factor, shutting everything fucking down. trains and buses are, for all intent and purpose, death traps.  COVID-19 breading grounds. If the folks in charge are chastising people going to the beach or parks with heavy traffic, then why the hell aren't you shutting these petri-dishes down at once?

Those who still need to work are more likely to go in to work regardless of their health status. And that's not their fault. It's the society that you built up. One where folks are so close to the edge and barely making it are forced to work healthy or sick. The complete lack of reform on paid sick leave and the fact that these jobs are often the bottom of the barrel and society has deemed them to be not worthy of decent pay regardless of this notion that they should still be doing it in the face of a global fucking pandemic, just shows that it's the system that failed all of us.

But I would not be caught dead in one of these buses. The amount of turn around by folks and germs should make sure that the bus driver is getting hazard pay. I'm goddamn serious. Why the hell would we keep running the metro subway or buses at all?

And you want to help those who don't have the means to get around?  Then make it so that they call a number and get supplies delivered to them on the city's dime. Do what China did. And I can't believe that I just typed that sentence. But fucking do it.  Deliver those supplies and give them a goddamn test. That's how we beat this. That's the only way we curb the outbreak. You grow a goddamn heart and help those that you, in spite of a fucking global pandemic, expect to go to work.

We crashed the economy for a good reason. To stop and preserve the future.  This concept of "well, we can make the buses free!" just makes me wonder if you want the poor to get sick and die off.

FUCK!

Okay, I'm just really upset by this.  It seems like a nice idea, but it's dirty. And I'm tired of the minorities getting the shit end of the stick. This screams plague blankets to the Native Americans.

There's better ways to help out those who need the help. But as it's clear in Washington, the concern is far more important for the damn CEO's and corporations than it will ever be for those who actually need a bail out and helping hand. With this notion that they just have to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps in a rigged system where they can't ever pray to have a leveled playing field.

Who is it that picks the fruits and veggies that you see still in grocery stores that are picked over. Who is it that helps stock those shelves over night, all night long, just so you can pick them clean in the morning.

So yeah, take that free bus ride filled with the toxic mix of who knows what germs that you have advised to stand 6 feet away from one another and do better.  You know you can.  And considering the way the system has treated them, they damn well deserve to be treated better.