One of my very favorite movie scenes of all time is one you may have forgotten. Have you seen The Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland and Edward Norton? I love this movie, and not just because it is (partly) set in Venice, my favorite place on Earth. And not even because it also stars my beloved late (sniff) blue Mini-Cooper.
Remember the scene where Hansome Rob (Jason Statham) is stuck in traffic waiting to make a left turn behind an actor (played by Scott Adsit) rehearsing for an audition?
“Give me your badge. And your weapon.” Over and over until the light is just about to change. Then Rob honks the horn, the actor realizes he needs to go, and does, leaving Handsome Rob stuck at the light.
I love the scene because it’s such a true-life event. In fact, this sort of thing used to happen to me all the time. The result – I sit in
G-R-I-D-L-O-C-K
Damn, I hate that. It’s funny in a movie. In real life, when there are things that must be done — important, occasionally life changing things — well, it isn’t quite as funny, is it? Usually, I just need to get along to work, to home, to the bathroom, to wherever. So does everybody else.
You know, it seems that now, in real life, the absent-minded driver has been replaced by the intentionally jerky driver who doesn’t stop when he/she know there isn’t a snowball’s chance that he will make it across the intersection. So he/she gets stuck in the middle along with other, like-minded jerks, and folks like me who try to get along. Nobody gets anywhere. No work gets done. The only thing they raise is blood pressure.
I know these folks. I’ve seen them outside of their cars. They are the same jerks who used to throw temper tantrums on the playground if there wasn’t a swing available (whether they really wanted to swing or not). Who used to bully. Who have been jerks since before the egg and sperm that formed them ever hooked up.
We here in the Washington, DC area are way too familiar with these guys. And we don’t want any more. In fact, we are pretty damn tired of folks who stamp their feet, pound their fists, and spit in the face of one of the cornerstones of civilization: working together for the common good.
Now someday soon, I’ll tell you all about the truly wonderful work that was done as a direct result of bipartisanship in the United States Congress. Yes, it’s true. And it happened in my lifetime and yours. But that’s for another day.
But believing as I truly do in lawmakers working together, imagine my disgust when I saw this clip of the jerk, Richard Mourdock, who beat Senator Lugar to be the Republican Party’s candidate for Senate in Indiana.
Boys and girls, listen up. Nobody gets anywhere when everybody stands and stamps their feet. And if someone running for office says:
“To me, the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else”
Well, then, it’s time to work to keep him out of office. We have enough jerks pushing their way into the middle of the intersection and going nowhere.
Let’s see if we can find folks who might want to work together to solve problems. Because we have a whole mess of them. And to fix them, all of us need to get along.
FiftyFourandAHalf 
