I guess I need to do this.... it has bothered me so much,and made it difficult for me to sleep. This past Saturday, we decided to go to LIT AT THE LOU, which was a book festival. It was held on Delmar, in the Loop, in a park behind the Chuck Berry statue. I couldnt remember where it was. I knew Id seen it before. So , we get to the area,and its pretty busy with traffic,and we are looking for it....we drove past the Tivoli,and into what is actually into St. Louis city, turn around at the Pageant. I knew we had missed it. Ok, this is a heavily residential area....main drag road....I dont remember seeing a speed limit sign.....so I am thinking its gotta be 25 to 30 mph tops,and its a very congested busy area,and we are looking for the statue. We got there early, which is the way we roll,and they did put a sign up for the event, but it wasnt there when we were looking around. Anyway....as I am driving an African American man drives up behind me, super fast, and starts to tailgate me...hes honking his horn, waving his arms wildly,and I can see the anger on his face,and him mouthing me in the rearview mirror. I dont speed up, because theres a speed limit,and we are looking. I am driving 25 mph. Ok, we come to a stoplight, hes still blaring his horn, its red! I cant move! He pulls to the right of us, on Cindys side of the car.....folks, theres no right turn lane......there is barely enough room for him to be there. Its a tan Ford Tauraus,and guess what...no license plates at all...he rolls down his window,and starts yelling at us....YELLING at us! Cindy is saying to me, dont react, dont look, we look forward ignoring this African American man yelling & using very foul language. He then runs the red light! Its still red. Goes up a half a block to pull into a gas station. He has what looks like a teenage girl in the car with him. It really shook us up. I was not doing anything wrong...driving,and then when you have something happen to you like this.....after the Ferguson situation..is this the future of St. Louis??? Is this how its gonna be??? I dont consider myself a racist at all,and I always try to treat everyone fairly as best I can. What did we do to deserve this type of treatment?? I was born in St. Louis. I have family there, friends there, we go there often to do the urban things we enjoy, museums, shopping, going out to eat,and we have to live in fear???? Live with someone acting the way this person did. We were both visibly shaking afterwards. We went to the book festival, but with the cold,and the way we felt emotionally, we left after only seeing one author. We had plans to eat down there on the LOOP. We have enjoyed the area, and now I am thinking....do we go back, or avoid it after what happened??? If this is what the future brings,and people think they have the right to be so nasty to each other, because we should protest, over what someone thinks is unfair......and treating another human being like that is gonna make things better?? Make us more comfortable to be around each other? I was so shook up, it never occurred to me to write down this mans license plate,and to stop and report him to the police...and yet, would the police have even dealt with it, or blew us off?? I think they are afraid too, so they react with you just have to ignore it. So, I asked Cindy yesterday,and shes the one that noticed the car had no plates. So, no way to report it,and like I said what good would it do? I dont feel like we should ignore this type of behavior. Then I tried to think I dont know this mans situation...but he pulled away, driving like a mad man, into a gas station to pump gas, after yelling at us a good several mins....if he was in such a hurry, why waste the time yelling...what did it really solve?? Why did he feel he had the right to treat a fellow human being the way he did? I just dont get it. Anyway, any comments would be welcome. I feel like St. Louis is my home, my stomping grounds,and now I feel unsafe being there..... Thoughts?
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 10:22:28 +0000