Maybe it was the full moon

I drive to work on a daily basis I have MANY experiences on the roads of Metro West Boston. I am usually amazed at the driving decisions made by the general public which included almost being killed or watching someone else almost be killed on average 4 times a week. I have driven in 7 other states, including LA in California, and clearly Massachusetts is the worse.

On my way home on April 18 I was shocked while sitting at a light that had just turned green to watch two cars whom had the green light be crashed into by a car running a red light that did not even bother to attempt to use the brakes. Instead this car ran a red light hit the side of one car with so much force that both cars went into the other car in the intersection then went all the way to the cars stopped for the red light.

The most amazing part of the experience was that once the cars stopped moving the drivers all got out of their cars to asses the damage, one being a pregnant women (9 months pregnant—actually passed her due date). The cars around rather than stopping to help or even asking if everyone was ok started to honk because they could not proceed through the intersection. All the drivers got back in their cars and pulled to the side of the road to call the police and await their arrival.

NOT ONE PERSON got out to help the pregnant women or the man whose car was hit by the idiot who blew the red light. I went around the block to find a spot and drag the pregnant women out the street until the police arrived. Interestingly, the man who ran the red light originally asked everyone if they were alright but once the police arrived did not speak English anymore.

I have had many experiences since I moved to Massachusetts against the advise of everyone I knew because my thought was that people here cannot be as bad as the stories I have heard. So far in just over two years, I have been run off Route 2 heading west on 1/3/07 by a purple Jetta during AM rush hour traffic ending up 10 feet into the woods and no one stopped. I have had a hole drilled into my head by a dentist who then got verbally abusive when I complained about the pain. A landlord, Giovanni Caruso, whom refused to replace my stove that had been broke for four months and instead demanded rent then left the country for a vacation in Australia. (It was another two months before I got a new stove). Stuck with a neighbor whom, because he comes home drunk, leaves dents and scratches in my car then when I asked him to stop retaliated by threatening my 65-year-old mother while she was taking care of me after surgery to fix the hole that was drilled into my head. Woke up one Sunday morning to find that one of the local jerks decided to cause $1200 of damage to a 3-week-old car by scratching “Asshole James” into the back door. And finally, my personal favorite (note sarcasm here), while working for a small company in Maynard was verbal abused and physically threaten at my desk for doing nothing more than my job. The CTO thought it was funny that employee needed to be physically restrained and removed from the office and my manager told me “That people like me should learn how to deal with it”.

LESSON: If you’re not from MA and you don’t have the right last name….DON’T MOVE HERE!!

The ‘Masshole’ folklore is true, alive, and well.