A Letter To UTW, Local 63
TO: United Steal Workers, Local 101
RE: Mugging of 101-year old woman
Dear USW,
I see from the news that your organization and many of your affiliate organizations (Society of Car Jackers, Drug Pushers of America) are working hard to maintain our country’s status as the leading producer of theft and violent crime. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear or read some report of your work.
Although I don’t consider your profession to be a desirable one, I can accept the possibility that one can get so desperate that they feel forced to steal. Particularly in today’s society where the poor often have nowhere to turn. But, I have to draw the line when it comes to mugging a 101-year old woman.
How much of a challenge or satisfaction in a job-well-done can be found by attacking a stooped, weak, slow-moving target with brittle bones and a fixed income. You want to steal? Fine. Then come after somebody like me. Sure, you’re taking a chance on getting a beat down. But, if you’re successful, you can take pride in knowing that you earned that thirty bucks from my wallet.
Remember that stirring song of the laborer?…
Look for the union label
When you are held up and asked for your purse.
Remember somewhere our union’s thieving.
Victims are grieving.
‘Cause they’ve been robbed–
Or so much worse.
We work fast. But who’s complaining?
Thanks to the UTW we’re stealing all day!
So always look for the Union Label.
It says we’re able to take it in the U.S.A!**
But it looks your sense of pride has gone in the ditch where you tossed the empty stolen pocketbook…and apparently your guts.
Sincerely,
Tony
……………………………………………….
Okay, so I’m sort of making a joke about a horrible situation. But that’s just a way for me to deal with it. I have never been so angry in my whole life about something that didn’t effect me, personally.
After reading the news story about a 101-year old woman who was mugged in New York this weekend, I literally had to get up from the computer and walk off the steam that was building up in me. I wanted to suddenly gain super powers so I could find the asshole mugger and take care of him myself. The super powers were just for the purpose of getting to New York in an instant. I have enough of a combination of anger and plain old country-boy human strength to tear the mother fucker apart and beat him with his own limbs.
Call me old-fashioned. Call me country. Call me cliche. But there are two rules that a man should live by:
1. Don’t hit a woman.
2. Respect the elderly.
The fact that the crime was against someone aged, whether it was a male or female, crippled or string as a horse, is what gets me more than anything. It’s just another sign of how society is deteriorating.
I am constantly amazed at the disregard for the elderly in this country. I hear about other cultures where the oldest are the most revered and most respected. But it seems like in our consumer-driven culture, a certain mindset is applied to human beings as well as material things: The older it is, the less value it has.
If stealing has to happen, steal for the elderly, not from them. We owe them much more than we will ever owe our creditors. And I’m not just talking about the ones who specifically made us soup when we were sick, taught us to drive, and wiped our asses before we learned how. I’m also talking about the ones we don’t know as individuals…the ones we’ve never met, but fought the wars, made the discoveries, tended the land and made so many things possible for our society.
The thought that someone would even so much as speak rudely to an older person makes me ashamed for my generation. Knowing that a 101-year old woman was mugged in her own apartment building (rule # 3 : respect a person’s home) disgusts me. Granny turns 90 later this month, and I swear that if some thug so much as looked at her crossed-eyed, I’d be on him like a bobcat on a lost deer. And they won’t get me off him until they take me to jail.
Actually, they might have to peel Granny off him. She can be a tough old bird.
I’ve mentioned before that Granny sometimes goes through little bouts of dementia and gets confused about where she is (time or place) or who people are. About four years ago I was sitting in the kitchen cutting up some vegetables or something when all of a sudden I heard a crack and it felt like a lightening bolt shot through my head. The next thing I heard was “What are you doing in here?” I also heard the “whrrrr” of wood passing quickly through the air from the broom handle flying around my head.
The only thing I can figure is that Granny, who had been taking a nap, woke up and saw someone in her house (me, from behind) that she did not recognize and was determined to protect the homestead. The broom was handy and so was the back of my head. She snuck up on me and “WHACK.”
I tried to calm her down between swipes of the broom handle (she only connected the one time) but she just keep screaming for me to get out. So, that was all I could do. I ran out of the house and gave her time to chill out.
When I went back in later, it was like the situation had never happened. She never mentioned to me about the intruder. It was like any other day and we went about our lives. She was vegged out in front of the TV, and I finished the veggies for dinner…after I moved the guns to the basement.
……………………………………………….
**NOTE: You can hear the original song here.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:21 am
You know, I have my faults and my shortcomings. There are times when I’m unintentionally rude or unkind, but MY GOD!! I’m completely shocked by this. It’s wrong to steal or hit anyone, but a little old lady? This story just boils my blood.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
For a second I was gonna flip - I quickly misread “Steal Workers” as “Steel Workers”. I thought you were saying it was Union members that mugged the lady, to which I saw no reference in the article.
OK so I’m slow.
But yeah, seriously. I mean I draw the line waaaaay before this, but mugging a little old lady is so “not-done” - only cause you can’t imagine someone actually doing that for real. Then when you see it DID happen, it’s like “Ugh! People are even worse than I thought.”
March 12th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I checked out the article and could barely watch the video… thiefs like this shouldn’t just be jailed, I like your beat-them-with-their-own-limbs solution. A lot. My Gramma has ups and downs with dementia/alzheimers too, seems like you’re able to cope with it well. Keep her safe!
March 12th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I couldn’t watch the video. My job keeps me in touch with how low people can stoop I don’t need the video evidence. I’m also at a point in my life where I no longer wonder about what may have happened in this guys life to make him into a person who can do this to any elderly person. What is important is that he is a person who does this to elderly people. He aint worth the lead it would take to kill him.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
It’s not just the consumerism and not valuing the elderly in our culture. When I was a kid in the 60’s, it was a stretch for my grandparents’ generation to reach their mid-70’s. But they were, typically, active and alert, often working, right up to the end. And most importantly, many of them were poor, almost none were rich, because for the most part, they didn’t have private pensions, and their modest houses didn’t skyrocket in value like they have over the last twenty or twenty-five years. They’d collected social security for perhaps five or six years, with no opportunity to build up savings.
Now, a huge percentage of our population is living to 80, 90, even 100, and while they’re alive, their physical condition is often frail and their alertness and mental acuity are often impaired. Moreover, many of them grew up on an era where the rules you mention were understood and followed, and they can’t conceive of anyone they might encounter who wouldn’t uphold those standards. And having collected retirement for 30 years or more, plus possibly a 401K or IRA or two, and a house that is worth ten times what was paid for it in 1960, they’ve got sizeable assets.
The result, as we’re seeing, is not just mugging 100-year old women. It’s the huge surge in identity theft, especially against the elderly. It’s the jump in scams that target older people’s investments. It’s shopping “deals” that get older people to commit to monthly purchases of everything from “health care products” to credit card protection that protects nothing. I have a friend who lives in fear that his 82-year old mother, who’s addicted to mail-order shopping from less-than-reputable companies, will end up giving out important financial information to someone and end up losing all her retirement investments.
Simply put, this growing population of older people are easy targets. For the scum who want to make money scamming people, the elderly are the easiest path to riches. This mugger is just the physical manifestation of the same thing: it’s easier to knock down a handful of old women and steal their purses and wallets than to mug one healthy 30-year old man or rob one convenience store.
March 12th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
The whole incident just disgusts me. The question is, how can society protect its elderly from crimes like this? I can’t think of a single good answer for that one.
March 12th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I can’t think of a more cowardly act. I’m beyond upset after reading about this. This callous disregard for the aged is a result of a society where our elders are considered throw-away people. Most languish in homes, often unvisited and unloved. Everything is geared towards youth and beauty. We need to start teaching kids at a very young age to value older people. So much rudeness is tolerated or thought cute.
I’m very glad you moved the guns away to the basement.
March 12th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Years back, going into a store, my partner just walked in ahead of this old lady. I held the door for her. Without knowing he was with me (or maybe she did) she says: “well at least some people were brought up with manners.”
I rub it in his face most every chance i get.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
What must countries like Japan and China, where the elderly are revered and treated as treasures, think of a country like ours where such evil happens? Perhaps now we can begin to understand why the Middle East views us as…”devils.” Perhaps now we can begin to understand why we are no longer the most respected country in the world.
So, we’ve come to this???
March 13th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Points well taken in the post LT….It’s sad in general how we as a society treat each other period (these days). Too much fast pace life and to much focus on $$$. Think were all guilty of it…as a result people are short with each other, worry about where they are getting the next buck from day to day. All just one big snowball effect.
March 13th, 2007 at 8:00 am
It’s beyond awful but hideous can happen anywhere, anytime and, one hopes, remains unusual (though I suspect less spectacular abuse of the elderly is more common than we allow for.)
I don’t think one can draw any broader cultural conclusions from this.
Having the elderly resident at the heart of an extended family is as much a matter of lacking any alternative options (too poor, no social services, etc.) as genuine respect or affection so let’s not overly romanticise the notion, usually there’s not much choice involved.
I believe old people’s homes are a growth area in India.
One can only be profoundly grateful that this doesn’t happen more often and we’re all still able to be shocked.
.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:21 am
seeing this shocked and disgusted me. i dont really have any more to say except rose is an amazing woman. strong and determined.
March 13th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I love how she said in a CNN interview if she had been about a half century younger she would have killed him herself.
Tough old New Yorker. I wouldn’t mess with her.
March 13th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
This is highly disturbing. Cowards. Can’t even rob from someone who could put up a fight. So sad. You’re right about respecting our elders. They shouldn’t be afraid of the world. They should get mad respect from the world. It’s a sad world we live in and I don’t tolerate disrespect of elders.
As for your Granny…I’m sorry, but I laughed at that story. I hope you can laugh looking back on it. She sounds ghetto. And I completely mean that in a good-don’t-mess-with-her way. My godmother has Alzheimer’s now and she wants to fight her niece who’s living with her. She keeps saying that she wants to mop the floor with her butt and the niece is nothing but nice to her. It’s funny on one hand because this woman wouldn’t hurt a fly in her right mind. It’s sad on the other because she’s forgetting everything.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
@ Jay…Yes, that WAS funny when Granny gave him a Whack and sent a lightening bolt flying through his head. Got a new broom though.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Well, that’s the best sarcastic taunt one can get for a job not well done