filthy mouthed children

on wednesday mornings, i take the bus to the gym. the bus rider-ship in the mornings is essentially: parents with young kids going off to kindergarten, 1st grade or to playschool, elementary-schooled aged kids going on their own to school, people going to their jobs and me. this past wednesday, i boarded and the bus was packed. i got a seat near-ish the back. for the entire bus ride (about 20 minutes), i was subjected to vile, crass, vulgar, homophobic and misogynistic commentary by a group of about 6 or 7 kids (mostly boys, maybe 1 or 2 girls, standing around and trying to look cool). their conversation (if i can call it that) seemed to center around anal penetration & "gayness", colourful phrases like "suck it b*tch", "eat my dick", and other acts of so-called sexual dominance. ewww. bear in mind that these kids looked like they might be in grade 6, maybe 7. tops.

there are children on that bus - children in early elementary. there are parents on that bus who have to hear this hateful disgusting tripe. there is *me* on that bus, a maturing, cranky, moralizer. jeezlouise. this is the kind of thing that sets me off. but, either i'm the only one who can hear these kids -- impossible because are so freakin' loud and obnoxious -- or others are better at ignoring them -- or no one else notices because they hear this crap all the time. i want to tell them to shut the f*ck up, but really i want to make them respect women and appreciate that gays are people deserving of dignity. i don't know how to do that. i'm also scared. another time on a bus, when two adults asked a bunch of junior high kids to stop fighting on the bus, the group of them turned on the couple and basically verbally harassed them until they exited the bus (several stops early, might i add). so i'm scared to say anything, but inside i'm seething. frustrated. despondent.

i remember taking the bus to school. it wasn't the city bus, but the cheese-wagon (yellow school bus). our bus-time commute conversation was punctuated with gripes about french homework, making fun of teachers (playfully, not mean-spiritedly) and generally make fart & nose-picking jokes. the most excitement that ever happened was when a kid named mike flicked pudding from the open window of the bus and nearly hit a pedestrian walking by. the bus driver (a stern, mannish woman with a strange mole on her face) pulled the bus over and kicked mike off. we were nowhere near our subdivision.

i could just scream!