My wife and I had a houseguest recently. Our friend visited from a very woodsy place near Santa Cruz. She’s fairly Zen-like, very serene.
Our visitor said Brentwood was an amazing place, filled with affluence, beauty, wonderful stores, and a fabulous farmers market. The houses and the gardens were spectacular, she added.
She said the people here are physically quite beautiful, as well. I guess that makes sense, since we’re in the land of show biz.
But then she added a kicker – and, indeed, it felt like an actual kick: She said she had never seen so many unhappy people all in one place.
She said it seemed to her everyone was scowling, walking at a fast pace, obsessed with their cell phones. Nobody smiled at each other or said hello, she said. She said everywhere she drove, people were honking at one another.
I felt a little defensive. Brentwood is my home, after all. But then I started paying closer attention. There really are a lot of scowling faces. People do seem like they’re in a big hurry. And people really do honk their horns a lot.
I think I’m pretty good at tuning out the horn-honkers – it’s a survival mechanism – but after our friend made her observations, I started paying more attention.
Last month I was driving on Montana one day, from San Vicente toward Bundy. Suddenly someone started blaring his or her horn at me. The vehicle – one of those souped up trucks that’s way too high off the ground – raced by me on the left side, facing oncoming traffic as the driver zoomed by.
I really didn’t know what the big hurry was; it was plain to see there was a red light up ahead. But the driver raced by anyway, that’s for sure. As I pulled up to the red light, the truck was now one lane over, to the right. I was going to turn left, heading south on Bundy.
Usually I hang back and give distance in a situation like this. But this particular case of horn-honking was pretty outrageous. I decided I’d pull up beside the driver and give him a quizzical look – just to let him know someone noticed his boorish behavior and was wondering what the big hurry was.
But it wasn’t a “him” at all, it was a she. I usually think of guys as being the perpetrators, but so much for stereotypes. Then, when this woman noticed I was looking at her, she started waving her arms at me in some awful and ugly way, like I had ruined her day and she was going to jump out of her truck and beat me up or something. I have a feeling she could have.
But none of this made sense, I hadn’t slowed her down at all. Here we were, both stuck at the same red light. But she looked very unhappy indeed, and when the light turned green, off she sped, in hot pursuit of the next red light that would surely anger her.
I have a theory. I’ll bet if everyone stopped honking their horns for 30 days, smiles would start returning to the scowling faces of Brentwood. When someone honks at me, it can take me hours to get over it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s try an experiment.
Let’s make Brentwood a honk-free zone for a month (unless it’s a true emergency and you really do have to honk to ward off an accident).
Traffic can and does make us all crazy, but let’s do our best to rise above the anger. Let’s stop honking. Let’s let others slip in ahead of us. Let’s all slow down a bit.
In coming months we will decide on which candidates to vote for – for congressman, LA County Supervisor – and for a new state senator. They will all have positions on how to improve traffic conditions, I’m sure.
Back in April, Brentwood News held a “Meet the Candidates” forum, co-hosted by our friends at University Synagogue. This was for the race to replace Henry Waxman, who is retiring from congress. We had all 17 candidates show up. Some predicted chaos, but it all worked out.
I’m happy to report that Brentwood News will do it again. We will host a conversation between Ted Lieu and Elan Carr, the two surviving candidates in the congressional race.
The event will be held at University Synagogue, Sunday, Oct. 12, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. You must RSVP to events@brentwoodnewsonline.com in order to get a ticket.
Now, at our last candidate forum we had something unfortunate happen. University Synagogue has something like 430 seats available and all seats were spoken for. In the days leading up to the event, we had to tell several people they couldn’t attend, we had a full house.
But then, on the day of the event, maybe 50 seats remained unfilled. Several who had said they were coming didn’t show. Others who wanted to come were angry when they learned about this.
If you want to come see democracy in action on Oct. 12 – and you really will attend – we’d of course love to have you. RSVP to events@brentwoodnewsonline.com.
If for some reason you discover at the last minute you can’t come, please have the courtesy to let us know – as far in advance as possible.
And, please note: Oct. 12 falls on a three-day weekend. If you will be gone that weekend, please don’t apply for tickets.
If you sign up for a ticket and don’t show up the day of the event, I might just send you an email. When you open it, you’ll see a menacing looking driver with a big scowl on his or her face, complete with blaring horn sound effects.
For all Brentwood students returning to school, I speak for all parents when I say we expect you to do your best, to get good grades – and to be model citizens.
And kids, if you hear your parents honking their horns during the next 30-day “honk free zone,” be sure to call them on it.
