// October 20th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // I Love LA.
I sit in traffic with dozens of other people in Los Angeles each in our own individual car we think is so great – a metal box to get around in. In New York you might be a businessman in a suit and tie holding your briefcase, or a high school kid carrying a backpack, but there you are sitting next to a tattered man who begs for $10 a day, across from a girl reading Pride and Prejudice, unable to get away from your fellow human being, forced to witness various manifestations of humanity up close and personal as you move to your destination.
Last night I met my friend Luis at a vegetarian restaurant called Orean up in Altadena. He doesn’t have a car and coincidentally just finished writing his book called Death of a Gas Guzzler.
What about efficient mass transportation here in Los Angeles? Quick electric railways were used around the country for years. General Motors though, put the kibosh on that by buying all the train tracks to purposely and methodically put them out of use, and thus make money selling the polluting cars currently strangling our lungs and our smog-filled city of Los Angeles. “An organized campaign to deprive the American public of their splendid electric railway systems,” stated the assistant US attorney general. Cars kill over 40,000 people a year.
So as Luis and I sat on a bench at Oreans eating, a man who looked poor, with the speech of someone who was slow of mind came up to us and said “I’m looking for something to eat.” I surveyed the situation. My friend Luis, on the other hand, immediately responded with “Yes, man, order whatever you’d like and I’ll pay for it.” Luis did was what I wished I had done. “I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight because all of the homeless shelters are full, but I really appreciate this.” The man said. It was raining. In other news, I did volunteer work at the bunny shelter this morning.
