Attention! A soapbox is being stood upon!

Last night after Drinking Liberally with Kath, my liberal spirit invigorated by, well, some liberal spirits, I walked to my bus stop, only to find 4 women squeezed on the bus stop bench with their big white doggie bags and even bigger......mouths?

(That's not really what I want to say. But I am trying to be somewhat non-judgemental.)

OK, who am I kidding? Fuck that. They were all large-bootied, loud-mouthed, bleached- blondes who had all probably just unbuttoned their tight acid-washed jeans after the big steak meals they had just scarfed down at Willie Gs. And they were "resting" on the bus stop bench as if it were a nice pleasant park bench on the 16th Street mall.

Meanwhile, about 10 of us are actually waiting for the bus. Standing up behind them.

So they're laughing and snapping photos and one of them starts making fun of the bus: HHHHAHHhhahhhh, cackle, cackle, cackle.....ewwwww we better move, we look like we're waiting for the bus, ahhahhhhahhhaaa, ewwwwww yuck the bus, cackle cackle, cackle......

The liberally invigorated me couldn't handle it.

What's wrong with the bus? I declared. They all turned around to stare at little redheaded me and one of them goes "WHAT did you just say?"

I said, what is wrong with riding the bus? Are you guys waiting here to ride the bus? Because some of us are.

So then they got up, all huffy, and as they walked away one of them said something to the effect of "at least we can afford cars, bitch!"

I was SO fucking pissed! Not really so much at them (I couldn't be....shit, bitches would have chewed me up and spit me out in like 10 seconds flat!) but at the perception in general of public transportation in this town. Does taking the bus make me low-class? Is the only reason I ride the bus is because I can't afford a car?

I want everyone to ask themselves this: why don't YOU take the bus? Even if it's just to go downtown on the weekends?

I can't begin to tell you the excuses I've heard- like, one time this girl at a party would not even get on it to go home with Kevin and I because of "the dirty people." Yes, there are some nasty people who ride the bus (even I don't touch the poles) but there are nasty people in airports too. Hell, there are nasty people EVERYWHERE.

Something needs to be done about the image of the bus. I'm tired of getting the looks of pity when I open my bus schedule in public. I fucking drive a brand new Outback, people! I don't need to take the bus, I take it because I want to! I take it because it is much better than getting a DUI. I take it because it is much better than circling downtown 50 million times looking for parking. I take it because it is better than feeding the rip-off meters a quarter for 10 minutes and then getting a parking ticket because you didn't put in enough change. I take it because yes, there ARE dirty weird people on the bus, but these dirty weird people are also very entertaining and enrich my life in ways that remind me how interesting and diverse living in the city is.

And......dum da dum dum....it's good for the ENVIRONMENT! Denver has awesome new hybrid buses now that are new and clean and nicely air conditioned. It's one more thing you can do to help those polar bears!

So please, if you can....try taking the bus a few times! If more hip, attractive, non-bum looking people rode it maybe the ignorance that it's a low-class mode of transportation would subside!