Muni story

So SF public transportation has a pretty bad rep, from bacteria infested seats on BART to service always interrupted Caltrain to never on time Muni. With the intensifying price war between Uber and Lyft, most of the time it’s just not worth the hassle to mess with the public transportation system.

But I don’t mind. With my copious spare time and newly found financial budgeting sense, I’m making my contribution to the Bay Area public transportation system. Coming back from a evening boxing class, I sat patiently waiting for my #12 bus, and after a while it was the 10 that showed up. Not willing to let the hard to come by bus go without giving it a chance, I asked the driver whether it would take me to SOMA. The driver was super helpful, after finding out where I needed to go, he told me he’d pass an intersection 3 blocks away, and even waived my ticket since I was having trouble with my clipper card.

The bus was empty so we struck up a conversation. He asked me how I figured out the bus route, and was amazed at what Google maps can do since he’s never used a smartphone before. Then he cheerfully patted the brown bag hanging next to his seat and told me about his new purchase, a 64GB iPad that he’s still figuring out what to do with. He doesn’t have Internet at home, so he’s going to have to buy a new plan and get his niece to install this modem thing for him.

The conversation was interrupted by new passengers. There was a lady in the Uniqlo jacket who got on and stood by the front to talk to the driver the entire way until her stop. He also shared with her the exciting news about his new purchase, and how long it took him to decide on buying it. After the lady got off, another middle aged Asian lady got on, and was super happy to recognize the driver. She grabbed a giant orange from her bag and offered it to the driver with her broken English, a bright smile lighting up her face. The frail old man who sat across from us joined the conversation, commenting on the weather and people and nothing in general. I mostly sat and listened in silence, and found the harmony of it all bringing a smile to my face as well.

As I waved goodbye to the happy driver and wished him luck with setting up his new toy, I thought about my last memorable muni ride. I got on at an inopportune time, right before a man missed his stop and started screaming at the driver for not letting him know where his stop was. The driver was a middle aged Asian man who did not seem to like his job, and the passenger was a gay man who seemed to think the world discriminated against him. He got violent and threw the driver’s water bottle out of the window, and the bus had to stop so it doesn’t get out of hand even more. The angry man then tried to enlist the sympathy of other passengers, and found only silence. At last I spoke against his violence, only to be cussed out for being a bigot as well.

I thought of these stories, as I thought about the Chapel Hill shooting, and this phrase came to mind: “religion doesn’t kill people, people kill people.” In our need to classify people into different groups, we keep trying to determine whether it’s one characteristic that causes certain people to kill, or certain people to be targeted. But the world is so much more complicated than that, and the people in it. One day a bus encounter can result in harmony, and another in rife. I can’t understand everyone and their actions, but at least I can take a step back and say, I don’t know their story, so I shall not judge what I don’t know. That is my reminder for today.