People who are just plain sorry

The BBQ Pit
1

There’ve been some heavy-duty pits here lately – against psycho killers, criminal alcoholics, and the like… but here’s one for all the folks out there who are just plain garden-variety sorry.

You know who you are.

You left those carts out in the Wal-Mart lot taking up a parking space 15 yards from the return bay, cause you were too lazy to walk your fat ass over there after rolling 50 pounds of sugar-and-white-flour-laden pseudofood to your Impala.

You tossed those Dairy Queen bags in the back of your pick-up and let them blow out onto the highway.

You dumped your trash down the side of the hill on route 29.

You let your kids run amok in the Big K while you shopped for plastic gewgaws, diet pills, and Soap Opera Digest.

You cussed out your mother on your cell phone in the post office in front of God and everybody.

You poured motor oil and antifreeze down the storm sewer where it went straight into the river.

You dropped your half-empty bag of popcorn slathered with artifical imitation nondairy butter-food substitute on the floor of the movie theater, where you talked out loud during all the best parts, telling your friend and everyone within earshot what was about to happen.

You blamed your teachers because your kids have no discipline.

You smoked and drank while you were pregnant, smoked and got drunk in the house while the kids were at home, and never bothered to vote.

Maybe in this world of suicide bombs, environmental degradation, famine, AIDS, and riot, all these little things don’t seem very important. But they are. Because folks who don’t care enough to lift a digit to do any better than this sure as hell aren’t gonna be part of the solution.

What’s worse, you’re putting your own children behind the 8 ball.

Is it any wonder Jesus never said, “Blessed be the sorry”? For they shall be the death of us all.

2

“Sorry” just doesn’t do justice to the type of people you’ve described.
I guess it’ll have to do though - when I think about people like this, words fail me.

3

Well, around here, that’s our word for folks who do things like this, who tie their dogs to trees with 8 feet of rope and leave them out in all weather.

4

Maybe this is another thread, but on the side, I’d be interested in knowing what other terms people have for this kind of… uh, lifestyle?

I’ve lived outside the US, but within US borders I’ve only lived in the deep south, so I’m often unsure when I’m using regionalisms.

5

On a related note, I Pit the other residents on my floor who own dogs. Attention, Sorry Sons o’ Binches: The hallway is not a common area, nor is it a kennel, nor is it an acceptable place to leave poop. And when I’m just trying to get into my apartment, your dog nipping at my ankles and/or coming into my apartment is not “cute.”

And to the lady who invites her 1,093,820 grandkids over in late December: The hallway is not a common play area, and my door is not an acceptable site for either bouncing rubber balls nor for crashing motorized Barbie scooters. And “It’s only once a year” is not an excuse.

6

{stands up, starts slow clap}

Thank you for this post, Sample. These people are exactly that, sorry. They’re sorry excuses for human beings, and a drag and a detriment to the society we’re all trying to live in. They don’t give; they just take, and then complain that they’re not getting enough. They think that somebody else should be taking care of things, if they ever think about things at all. They’re the people who go to a national park, and throw their granola bar wrappers on the trails.

I made a decision long ago to fight these kinds of people. I pick up garbage on the street when I can; I take one piece of someone else’s garbage out of the park when I go for a hike. I put other people’s carts away. Everybody thinks “Somebody should do something about that.” Well, I decided to become that somebody.

7

It must be difficult for you, Sample. How on earth do you get by in this world of people that are so terribly inferior to you?

8

Now that is an interesting and, I would guess, productive approach. Kinda makes me rethink my “striking them between the eyes with a large sledgehammer” school of thought.

9

One and a half of these items describes my mother to a tee. Of course, in 1969, smoking and drinking were good for you, so why not do it while you were pregnant? She never drank around us when we were young, though. She did smoke like a chimney until 1984, when she coughed up black stuff, then went cold turkey.

Anyhow, what I’m getting at, is WTF do any of those have to do with not voting?

My Mother may have smoked and drank (which is now bad, BAD!), but she always voted.

As for the other things you describe… I hate those guys.

10

I do the same as Featherlou.

I pick up garbage, I return carts. After a while you don’t think about it anymore, you just do it.

I highly recommend it to one and all, somehow it helps, I’m not sure why.

I still feel like one small person in a large world but I don’t feel like a powerless small person.

11

I gotta admit, it’s tough. :wink:

But seriously, people who don’t care enough to do the basics… I see no excuse. I do the same as others above much of the time – I thought of this post while putting carts away.

I got no problem pitting folks who are just plain sorry. No apologies. Littering, abusing animals, neglecting and endangering your kids… I feel I’ve earned the right to feel superior to that.

I believe in the power of shame. In fact, it’s just about the only thing that’s ever made me change my ways when I’ve been sorry myself.

12

So, Smeghead, do you consider yourself to be on a par with these folks?

13

Welcome to topsy-turvy world! A world where inferior is celebrated and superior is reviled! Where if you try to improve yourself and your fellow man, you are the lowest of the low, but if you wallow in your basest instincts you are held up as a god! :rolleyes:

14

That’s the kind of person I’d prefer not vote. Maybe it’s just me.

15

I’m with you if you mean (and I think you do) that sorry is short for “sorry ass excuse for people”.
I will add to your list:

the people who yell at their kids in the stores–the classic line of “you wanna cry? I’ll give ya sumpthin’ to cry about!” etc–I always think-if you are comfortable doing this in public, wth happens at home? Ditto in spades for those who slap their kids in stores.

People who dump their car ashtrays in parking lots of grocery stores etc. Nice.

People who spit tobacco on any floor.

People who abandon pets.

People who crank their car stereos so loud that I can hear it in my car with my windows closed and my stereo on.

People who chew gum on the phone.
List could be endless…

16

What, trying to be a contributing member of society and not take more than you give has somehow become equated with being superior? Come to think of it, from what I see every day of average behaviour, I guess it kind of has. Lowest common denominator rules, I suppose.

(I think you’ve hit the nail, elbows. I don’t feel powerless against the tide of apathy and entitlement when I can keep the street in front of my own house clean.)

17

I have taken this one step further.

I return carts, pick up litter, hold doors open, etc.

However, I also call people on it when I see them leaving their garbage, not returning their carts, being rude.

Now, I don’t yell, “Hey, asshole!” across a parking lot when I see a sorry person pushing his cart over to the side but I will walk over, grab the cart and return it while telling the person, “No, that’s okay, I’ll get it for you this time since you seem too tired to walk all the way over there.”

When I see people walking through a door that someone has held open for them (usually me) and not thanking the person, I just respond with a loud-enough “You’re welcome.”

I’m not calling out a fight–I am simply reminding these people of their behavior in a nice but pointed way. Is it going to work? Much of the time, no. But just doing it for them is going to serve even less purpose. The more someone picks up after them the more thay can justify not doing it themsleves.

Now, so far as people talking loudly on cell phones or screaming loudly at children in public places, I cater to them. I do exactly what they want–I stare. They obviously want to draw attention to themselves–why else would they be so obviously intrusive and obnoxious? And I have told more than one person that is precisely the reason I am staring. They wanted attention, they got it.

Passive-aggressive, you say?

Damn right. But it sure as hell beats being an insensitive, obnoxious, self-absorbed, sorry individual.

18

This should become a Doperism. :slight_smile:

My compliments, featherlou.

19

Thank you. {insert curtseying smiley}

I think about calling people on stuff, evilbeth. I haven’t reached that level yet, though. I agree with you - I don’t think it would hurt people to know that their sorry-assed stuff does get noticed by oither people.

20

::makes mental note for next time she’s in the supermarket parking lot::

Is that why I got the finger last week?

E.