...wondering what's so funny about empathy

In Bob Roberts, there's a scene where the titular character and his security/campaign team are leaving a particularly heated rally/concert. When they get back to his tour bus they find in the back a woman who had been stalking him the entire campaign. She's taken a large poster of him and cut a hole and put her head in it. While he's yelling at his team to get her off the bus she's saying "He's looking at me," partially delusional and partly in awe.

This is Toronto.

(Sidebar: That's something like four posts in a row where I've started with a reference to a show or movie. I really should stretch a little, but like the Queen said to the playwright in the pickle factory, "Write what you know!" )

I've lived in Bippity Town, or the GBTA, for close to 15 years now, and it has never ceased to amaze it with its capacity to take any problem and make it 100 times worse, and then kick and scream about it until it's someone else's problem. They're the woman on the bus in Bob Roberts; partly delusional, partly embarrassed, but all the time saying "They're looking at me!" (They, in this case, is the world.)

Right now there is a public sector strike in Bippity Town. There are many services in the city that are shuttered because of the strike, but the one getting the most attention is garbage collection (Full disclosure: In Etobicoke we will continue to have our garbage collected due to a contract which I believe existed prior to amalgamation).

"City under siege," people are crying. Some are already throwing garbage out into the street. People have been publishing the address of the head of the union and telling people to dump their garbage on his lawn (It didn't work for Johnny Fever...). Basically everyone is starting to act like they must prepare their bodies for the Thunderdome, and that this is the new law.

Do you know how long the strike has been going on? Guess.

One day.

ONE.

DAY.

One day has people worked into a pique, clutching their handkerchiefs and worried that the next boat from the Indies will bring the plague. One day and evidently the people of Bippity Town have generated so much waste that, like Springfield, we're going to have to pick it up and move it 5 miles down the road. One. Freakin. Day.

In the middle of this here are some thoughts:

• Posting someone's address, regardless of how you feel about him? NOT. COOL. Funny how people got all angry about Seimens and Nokia possibly sharing information about Iranian protesters cell phones, but because your coffee grounds are still in the house your action is justified. NEVER. COOL. If you agree with nothing else I write, please agree with that because if you don't I openly question your commitment to Sparkle Motion. And humanity. Mostly Sparkle Motion.
  
• People are posting pictures of garbage cans downtown that have been sealed up to prevent unauthorized dumping, because they're not going to be cleaned anyway. These cans have signs on them that say "Do not litter". So of course people are yelling "FAIL!" If you, in the run of a day downtown, generate so much litter that you can't put it in a little ziplock bag and then ditch it when you get home then maybe there are things in your life you should be looking at much more closely than a sign on a bin. Maybe now you should start carrying your own coffee mug for your precious Starbuck's or Tim Horton's. And maybe you don't really need that bag of chips if you have no place to put the wrapper. Hopefully this will make you think that bringing a cup every day for your coffee isn't such a hardship, and perhaps you don't need the chips full stop.
  
• People love to pick on unions. I'm not going to debate the merits of what the strike is over or the relative benefits of unionized labour. But I will say this: Garbage men have among the worst, if not the worst, job in the First World. Every day they're on the back of that truck, picking up other people's shit (let's call a spade a spade). They spend their life in what other people don't want. And every time they reach into a bin, they don't know what's going to come out. And what do they get for it from the people? Horns honking at them because they're blocking some over-privileged guy, making a fuss because his job where he teaches people how to say "Hello" with their power within is more important than SANI-FREAKIN'-TATION. But that's okay...he'll be good to his secretary on Professional Assistant's Day, coz he "gets" the little people.
  
• Agreed: The inconvenience of having to take your trash to a processing station is pretty big, especially if you don't have a car, or your job will keep you from the hours. Mind you, I grew up in a part of the world where it was a 30 minute round trip to get a loaf of bread, let alone get rid of garbage, so what do I know? But you know what? Strikes are SUPPOSED to be inconvenient. You're SUPPOSED to realize how vital a service is so that you don't take it for granted. Does it work that way? Sadly no. But suck it up Sunshine, they're doing a job you think you're too good for. (Funny how people say "Fire them all, others will take the job", but never say "Fire them all, I'll do it! And for less! And with a smile on my face.")

Am I going over the top? You betcha.

But that's how people roll in Bippity Town. It was the same during:

• The blackout, where people were wailing and screaming and banging on buses because the subway was out and they were going to be late for work. (Were you in the shit? Yeah I was in the shit.)
  
• The transit strike, when people wondered about how the economy of the country was going to fare because the buses weren't running for a day.
  
• SARS, when people were running around in masks and people were being told not to cough in public even though the cough part of SARS onset at the end.
• September 11, when people randomly decided that 5 planes were headed to Toronto and so they had to clear out the downtown core. (Seriously. I worked in the tallest building in Canada at the time and everyone KNEW that was happening.)
  
• They Year of the Gun, when a statistical blip in gun violence caused people to think that we were living in a borderline Escape from New York era.
• When the Tamils occupied the Gardiner, leading people to imagine that the whole city was being held to ransom.

...and so on...

I often wonder what would happen if something actually happened to Bippity Town. For example, imagine that people were clogging the streets after a disputed election, marching to make sure that their voices were heard and were getting beaten and shot for a privilege that some people consider a basic human right. I'm going to go out on a limb, but I'm sure most people in Bippity Town would complain that since the protesters moved in, parking has been a nightmare. And then there would be more riots. Between citizens. Looking for a place to park.

As I've said before: I have faith in the city of Toronto. I have little faith in the people of Toronto.

Look, you might agree or disagree with the union, or the Tamils, or the health services. And I'm not saying your complaints are invalid. But panicking and demonizing anyone at the mere suggestion of something upsetting the normal course of your day is exactly the wrong thing to do. It's about understanding, about finding out WHY something is happening. Maybe you'll come to same conclusion, but you'll have a better understanding of where everything is coming from, maybe even develop a little empathy.

I know I'm not changing any minds here. If it's easier for you to just say "them" and "they" and tar an entire strata of society with the same brush, go for it. But the people causing that "inconvenience" to you are trying to live their life also, trying to get their stuff done, and trying to look after their family and do their job. You can say they're lazy, you can say they don't care...but damnit...THEY'RE YOU.

People changed their location to "Tehran" in twitter to try to provide cover for the protesters dying to have their voices heard in Iran, but you post a private citizen's address because you have no place to put your ciggy-butts?

But that's okay...they're looking at you...they're looking at you...