I Swear I Hate MARTA.........

MARTA is short for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, the bus and train service.

Now before I go off I will admit that my standards for public transportation is high.

I grew up in New York city, I'm not some suburbanite walking around in awe and scared of his own shadow when surrounded by "strange" looking people.

To be honest I like the adventure that you may be subject to when riding the public system.

I don't mind the old Asian lady who hops on the train and passes out her Jesus Saves pamphlets to every one.

The old black man who when not talking and laughing to himself calls everyone "dad" and bums everything from money to cigarettes at damn near every station, he is cool with me.

I don't mind the unruly alternative school kids that cause havoc when class is out, talking loud cursing and fighting.

The random burst of craziness that you get from the people with mental health issues with no where to go so they ride up and down the train routes, even when they break out into a Soulja Gurl like incident.



The DL homosexuals who ride late night trying to pick up other DL men and thus inevitably hit on straight men.

Side Note: One night after leaving work, I was on the train being watched by this dude who was built like and offensive linemen. I thought it's about to go down, this asshole thinks he is going to walk off with my wallet, than he winks at me an puckers up his lips. Hell I would have preferred that he was a mugger I promptly made my way to the next car.

I can put up with that.

What I cant put up with is a poorly run business like MARTA.

I cant put up with buses late to arrive and late to leave cause the damn bus driver is doing everything but driving the bus.

Like the one who driver who decides she needs to have a conversation with every other bus driver before she pulls off.

I cant stand the fact that YOU KNOW the damn Falcons or the Georgia Tech Football teams have home games and you don't schedule more train running thus flooding the platform with drunk fans who have no idea that your supposed to WAIT AND MAKE ROOM for arriving passengers to get off the train or bus before trying to get on.

The idiots block the doors and look at you like your crazy when you don't move, like your supposed to teleport your way out of there.

Move!

Then there is the lousy scheduling for people who work third shift or out in the sticks.

Let you not make that train station by 1245, your stuck where ever your at.

This city forces you to get a car, and that's for real.

I like riding good public transit but when i moved down here it was so random i had to learn to drive, at 21 years old.

Then they got the nerve to hike fairs, and people have the nerve to complain about traffic.

I swear I hate MARTA.

Observations 1

While over at Essential Presence blog I came across this post.

Have you noticed that since Obama has been elected President all of a sudden that one drop rule, were if you have any black blood in you, your considered black, no longer applies?

Or rather it replies in reverse now, as in your not black.

It started quietly enough when it first became apparent Obama was going to win.

A group of mixed people and groups like Swirl, (thought I was making that up huh?), got vocal and pointed out that they would prefer that he be acknowledge as one of them.

Than the media slowly but surely started talking out the side of their necks about how he was not really black.

Hell the KKK has called him mixed and refuse to say he is black, now YOU KNOW when the KKK refuses to call you a n#%& the world is turned upside down.

Never mind that the man himself said "I am a black man".

Now I try not to get into that here, because I really don't give it much thought, unless some one brings it up.

Ironic since my youngest brother's father is white, (a Brit at that), and I was out the house when he was still young so the topic never came up.

There are different ways you can look at it;

1- You can be a cynic and say well they don't want a black man in office that bad, that they are willing to turn a blind eye to the rule.


Ehh.....partly true, there are those who believe just that, hell there are black people who feel that way about him for one reason or another.

2- You can be positive and say well it is an acknowledgement of the union that brought him here and a sign that this country has turned a corner.

?.....yeah you believe that than I got an oil field in Iraq to sell you.

3- You can say it's both.

Could be.

4- Or you can say every one wants a piece of the action so there running to plant a flag in his butt.

I know I did the moment he said he was a black man, and if you want me to be honest I would have voted for Clinton if he refereed to himself as mixed, for no other reason than thinking he was trying to be slick and play both sides of the fence.

That's just me and my distrust of politicians.

What I will point out is that most African Americans are mixed to a certain degree or another and it has been proven through genetics that some AA who are dark skinned or darker than Obama have a higher percentage of white in them and some lighter skinned black have a higher percentage of black in them.

And given that Obama comes from an African father and what appears to be a very white mother that makes him a solid 50/50.

That would be more black than some of the most militant blacks and more white than some whites (who are mixed to, they pretend they don't know).

Yeah this country is a regular 31 flavors of people, a big old swirl.

How you take it is on you, all I know is I like chocolate and anything it's mixed with.