The Bottom Line: The Chicago Transit Authority

I’m a Virgo so I’m a list girl. So let’s go through a list of the most ridiculous things about this clusterfuck that is the CTA situation in this city.

- This sentence in my "get ready for next week" email. We are asking all of our customers to avoid the rush hour whenever possible by leaving early or late.

This burns me because I fucking hate when people assume that perhaps because they can do something, others can too. I’m lucky enough where I can do this if I wind up needing to. My bosses generally don’t care if I’m here at 7 a.m. or 10 a.m., as long as I get my shit done. But the majority of people in this city, I don’t believe, have bosses that say, "hey, get here whenever ya can, okay?" Most people can’t just stroll into work later in the morning because it would be easier on their commute. Lots of things could make commutes easier for employees but most employers don’t give a shit about that. For those of us with employers who do, we’re really fucking lucky.

- The fact that everyone is blaming Springfield. Personally, I think Springfield does tend to fuck over the city whenever they can because they know they can, which blows. But I don’t necessarily believe it’s Springfield’s responsibility to fund our transportation system. I think they should play a major part, sure. But it’s not "their fault." If Douchebag Daley wasn’t busy putting cameras on every other corner and having parties at his plaza when the Cubs win a game that’s like 6 games removed from actually getting them to the World Series and bending over for any and everyone with any say about where the Olympics will be held, perhaps we wouldn’t be having this problem, hmm? If anybody who was anywhere near the top of the chain of command here had their fucking priorities straight, this wouldn’t be such a serious issue for so many people.

- The bus routes they’re cutting. Are they the bus routes that connect the burbs to the city? No. Are they the bus routes that connect north side neighborhoods to downtown? Not really. Are they bus routes that connect southsiders to downtown and connect areas of downtown and the Loop to each other? Mostly, yes. When shit like this happens, it almost always has the greatest effect on people who are the least capable of managing it and who have the fewest resources available to them in order to help try and manage it.

- The idea of charging more during rush hour. This seems like a fairly obvious and easy decision but to me, really just screams, "you may be going to work so you can live the American dream (which we encourage, go USA!) but we’re going to make that a little harder on you because we can’t work a fucking budget." Thanks to my handy-dandy DVR, I watched a documentary the other day about Wal-Mart and its effect on society and the economy and one woman who worked there basically worked her 20 hours a week to get a paycheck and then turned around and gave it right back to Wal-Mart so she could buy shampoo for $.25 and socks for $.10. I don’t believe people should have things handed to them. I believe in hard work and I believe in taking some sense of pride in whatever work it is you do. But it only gets harder and harder for people to give a shit about what they do for a living when at every turn, someone is trying to take a little more money out of you or telling you to work just a little bit harder for a bit fewer perks.
I’m bitching and moaning about it and the whole thing is going to have a fairly minimal effect on me. The #22 bus (one of the very last routes I think they would cut) and the #145 bus (which could possibly be cut in January) are pretty much right outside my door. I could also walk under a mile to one of two Brown Line stops and be dropped off right across the river from where I work. So if I have to change it up from my usual #22 bus ride, I can. Although I’d rather not, I am, fortunately, one of the people who can change up her work hours too. Hell, come January, I’ll probably avoid much of rush hour anyway since I work in a field where from January to April, I may as well have a tattoo on my ass that reads "Property of the IRS." I also can afford to use the Chicago Card and have it reload to a credit card when it needs to, as opposed to paying more with cash or a transit card, which saves me a few cents.

So really, others will suffer much more than I will but hell, it still pisses me right off. I hate to think of the people whose bus routes will be cut entirely and for those whom tacking on $.50 or a $1.00 to their commute will have a serious affect on their finances.

The Bottom Line: Get your priorities straight. Figure out that in order to support your city, the people who live in it need to work. And in order to work, they need to get there. You’re a major city, for god’s sake. Get your shit together.

oy vey

Janelle's entry connecting the Michael Vick scandal with rape in general somehow made me think of the news stories about teenage boys and the hot teachers that have sex with them. Could we please stop calling this rape? It devalues the victims of violent rape, IMHO.
"Willing Participant" is the default value for most teenage boys (including myself, moot as it was). Women who are violently raped often don't report it out of shame (whether misplaced or not), whereas banging the 24 year old hottie teacher is bragging rights material. When we hear about the elderly English teacher with the horn-rimmed glasses having sex with teenage boys, then maybe "rape" would be a more appropriate term.

I know when he referred to "victims of violent rape," he was referring to those who walk away from the situation physically bloody and battered and bruised. But I think it still somewhat indicates the general idea a lot of people have that rape usually happens when some crazy man jumps out of the pushes, shoves a gun in your face, and pummels you while he rapes you.

Does it happen? Sure. Are most reported cases of rape that kind of rape? Nope.

I consider all rape violent. Any time a person takes away another person’s power and control over his / her own life, I consider that an act of violence. Power-reassurance rapists tend to consider themselves to be "lovers" of their victims and will often talk to the victim while it’s happening and won’t use an awful lot of physical violence. But to me, if someone shoves himself into me without my having asked for it…I don’t care how "nice" he treats me or that he’s not punching me while he’s doing it, he’s still being violent and I’ve been a victim of violence.

I’m also seeing two paragraphs full of words here but all I’m reading is "teenage boys are unrapeable."

Which I think is an entirely crazy and dangerous mentality. I think believing any group of people is "unrapeable" is dangerous. Hell, until the 1970s, most states believed wives were unrapeable. In some states, there are still specific requirements that need to be met within spousal situations in order for it to be considered a crime and in quite a few instances, the wife needs to have reported the rape within a certain amount of time. Because as we all know, rape victims usually run directly to the police station immediately after being raped so that they can get down to business re-living it and fighting the good and easy fight of punishing a rapist. How quickly do you think a woman in an abusive marriage is going to run to the police after her husband rapes her? Yeah. Not too quickly. Some people still believe men in general aren’t rapeable. If there’s no vagina, how can a person be raped? It’s simply amazing to me. It’s similar to the "but he was hard" or "she was wet" argument. How do you think sex works? Certain physiological things happen when two people are going at it…that’s partly what makes fucking so fun. A biogical reaction doesn’t equate to consent.

Teenage boys. Teenage girls. I don’t care who they are. And I don’t care how attractive the teacher is. If one takes advantage of the teacher / student relationship, breaking whatever laws the state may have regarding it, it’s a crime. It’s not something to be overlooked because of the "eh, boys will be boys!" mentality.

Bottom line: the "men have a penis and are therefore up for sex at any time" theory is completely retarded.