Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life |
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Friday, January 27, 2006 My brother-in-law, a coworker, and I were chatting and the subject of San Francisco came up. I love San Francisco and while it does have its share of problems, I've yet to find a city I'd rather live in. My coworker (who is from Canada and lives in San Jose) said that San Francisco is a beautiful city (it is), especially the waterfront. He said that the 1989 earthquake was the best thing that could have happened to the city, a comment I'm not sure I agree with at all, having been here at the time (even though I suffered very little myself). He continued on to say that the only problem is the bums. He said he knows that poverty is not a crime, but he still doesn't know why they don't do something about the bums. He gave an example of a "big black guy" who hides behind a bush and jumps out at people to scare them. He then asks for money and apparently people actually give it to him. I agree that that seems wholly unacceptable behaviour. I understand that his being big is relevant to the scariness of his action, but I'm not sure what being black has to do with anything. (Unless the thought is that people are likely to be more scared because he's black, for some reason.) Anyway, he said that he was also amazed at the people who stood around waiting for the guy to catch an unsuspecting victim and who found the whole scene funny. He didn't think that jumping out and scaring someone should be funny. I'm not sure why, but I would have never guessed that. |
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