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Is New York City taking care of its people? If you think so, perhaps you can explain why everyone seems so miserable. I have to take the subway to work every morning and if you look at the faces of the general public, you would think you were riding in a funeral car. Happiness is more than lacking on the slow, bumpy ride to hell. Everyone looks like the walking, standing, sitting dead. You can’t tell who is playing the role of the grim reaper and who is being reaped. Even the normally bright eyed, rosy cheeked, glowing random child looks like he crawled out of a six foot deep eternal resting place and is annoyed about being awakened.
When many New Yorkers walk down the street, they look like the “tough guy" or "tough gal" who works for the mob, or they are in hot pursuit of that jerk who stole their money. Either way, you should feel compelled to get out of their way. If you don’t, they may rudely bump or shove you aside, all the while glaring at you like you are after their first born.
When taking public transportation have you ever noticed how if it is quiet when a group of laughing people get on, everyone already onboard glares or glances at them, annoyed? Their disturbed faces seem to be saying “How dare you interrupt the evil we’ve so vehemently established!”
I dare to ask, what is everyone so uptight and miserable about? Could it be, perhaps, the lack of comparable paying jobs in such an extremely high priced city? Could it be the over crowded schools, trains, buses, highways, streets, sidewalks, neighborhoods, restaurants, supermarkets, train stations, ticket lines, and department stores? Maybe it’s the rude customer service received from store clerks who just don’t care because there will be substantial money generated from arbitrary traffic into the store whether you purchase something or not. Although everyone is in a rush, and probably has elevated blood pressure, I’m sure the misery of the city folk couldn’t be affected by the rude way people talk to each other, “Are you gonna order something or just stand there and hold up the line?” Or maybe it gets their gander when they ponder all the seemingly able men sitting on the bumpy, jerking train while the women, children, and elderly stand and hold on for dear life. Or perhaps it’s the result of the yellow cabs either running you off the road, or not stopping for you when you try to hail them. Waiting on the corner--and being splashed with the dirty street water standing in enormous potholes left unfixed by the city--by a speeding yellow cab or city bus is insulting enough to put a scowl on one’s face I suppose. Not that any of this ever happens in New York City.
Regardless of the cause, the reality is that New Yorkers just don’t seem happy…in public anyway. So why do so many of us flock there and try to make a life? It goes without saying that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Seriously.
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