GIVE METRO A MINUTE!!!

Let's give the DC Metro Transit Authority a few minutes!

It is Tuesday afternoon and just a few minutes past the 24 hour mark for the worst accident in Metro's 30+ year history. And the media is in a frenzy!

Reporters for the local news stations, especially FOX5, are just chomping at the bit and asking anyone with a camera in front of them to explain why "Metro" [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] hasn't issued a formal statement explaining why two Red Line trains collided yesterday killing over 7 people and injuring dozens more.

I've heard a few intelligent people, telling the local media, through clenched teeth, that investigations are on going and neither Metro or the NTSB have any idea of what happened just 1 day ago. I don't even think emergency workers are 100% sure that they've gotten all of the bodies off the trains. A big section of of one train is just a compressed heap of tangled metal! Anything could still be in there at this point!

I'm pretty steamed about how the media outlets in this area are acting like bloodthristy sharks over this tragedy. Yesterday afternoon in the first hour after the crash, a few of the local newscasters were trying their damn'dest to be the first to use the phrase "confirmed casualty" in a complete sentence. I think FOX5 might have been the winner, but it was close!

Now, in the aftermath, everyone in the media is looking for the next sexy lead-in... "Who can we BLAME?" I've already heard that it appears to be a toss up between an automated mechancial system that failed and a possible operator error. One radio station reported that the driver of the train was ranked 18th from the bottom [in experience] in a system with over 500 operators. The news guy was actually drooling when he said that. I bet he was giddy that he could find such a stat.

The driver and at least 6 others died.

I truly wish that the media would just calm down a little bit. Report what they have and not make a circus of speculation out of what they don't have and out of what they don't know.

And, let's be real, law suits are going to start raining down from the sky on Metro, so that too is a legitimate matter that must be considered by WMATA. No matter how you slice it, there is no reason for Metro to rush out with an inaccurate statement only to have to issue a corrective statement days later... which of course, The Media would beat them to death over!

Let NTSB do their job, let Metro cooperate fully and keep their other lines servicing their hundreds of thousands of riders and let the information come out as it becomes clear. Nobody is going to forget about this DC Media, I promise - let's bury the dead, heal the injured, make sure this doesn't happen again and move forward.

Mama's House - ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Damn, I missed My Blog!!!

I've been wanting to write, and wanting to write and wanting to write and finally, tonight - I stumbled into the perfect storm of free time, access to my laptop, being awake, and something bugging the hell out of me.

No, not the TEA Baggers - I'll get to them tomorrow...

I was just told that this 31 year old guy I know just went out and bought a brand new Mercedes. That by itself is not a bad thing, the bad part is that he still lives at home with MAMA.

I have been hearing so many stories of grown-ass men, mainly Black Men, but I believe that is largely because of the circles I travel in, being well into their 30's and still living at home WITH MAMA. Some even live with MAMA and DADDY, so they can't even say "I'm just looking out for my mom."

There is a 47 year old guy at my job who PROUDLY still lives at his mother's house. I know a 44 year old guy who still lives with his dad and his dad's new wife. I know a 27 year old guy that trots around his parents house carefree like he's 16 and trying to borrow the car keys. I know a 35 year old guy that makes over $90K a year and isn't thinking about leaving home. He's quick to declare that he gives his parents $430 a month. Uh, last time I checked - there were no apartments in the city for $430 a month, so that, combined with the fact that he makes over $90K a year makes him one cheap bastard, one VERY cheap bastard.

What the hell is this about?

I'm going to go ahead and put a little of my family business out there. I have two brothers that are well into their 30's and they are well set to stay at MOM and DAD's house until somebody dies. Honestly, it is that fact that makes me visit my parents less and less. They sit back and accept the fact, almost welcome the fact that these two are just never going to leave home and I just can't grasp that logic.

My mother often says that she knows that my brother X is going to meet a good woman and get married. I've tried to tell her that most Sister's in their 30's that are about anything - have their own places and their own money and they want to go places and do things and enjoy life with a man that is doing his thing, being his own man, LIVING IN HIS OWN PLACE, and not collecting video games and DVD's in his mom's basement. I told her that no self respecting woman is going to want anything serious with a man that has to take her to a motel or a hotel everytime he wants to be close to her. Most women are not going to want to sit in the basement of their 35 year old boyfriend's parent's house on Friday and watch movies. I tried to reason with her to push my brother's into grown-manhood. She declined, said nothing was wrong with them living 'at home' and said that they would leave when they were ready. Then she got a little mad at me so I cut my losses.

I've tried talking to my brothers, well sort of, brother Y and me aren't that close, so we just stay cordial with each other, and brother X always seems to breeze past my suggestions that maybe he needs to get an apartment or something. I think to him, there is nothing to be gained by having your own place, and I guess he expects my parents to live another 50 years and just take care of the house they live in. I try to school him sometimes but he ignores me, he always seems to have some story about how this 'girl' he met at the mall... I'm sorry, he calls women 'fee-males' now... so he'll tell me about how some 'fee-male' he met at the mall is trippin' and won't return his calls.

Sure, maybe I'm being a d*ck, or maybe I'm getting into other folks' business, but to me, I care about my brothers and I care about my parents and I think it's time for my 30+ year old brothers to become independent men and learn to live on their own. Especially my brother X, he is such a nice guy and has such a great heart - I just wish he would mature some and get his own place and try to see the world beyond that little 20 square miles he almost refuses to leave.

But, enough about my brothers - I have been coming across more and more men that live with Mom'an'em. It's funny to me, because I've often wondered how these men present their living situations to women they meet. There is no way I could imagine being 34 again and telling some gorgeous woman, "Yeah, I live on the westside at my mom and dad's house. It's cool, my mom does my laundry on weekends." As fate would have it, I was talking to a guy who was telling me about a buddy of his that makes almost six figures a year and still lives with mommy and daddy. I said, "He still lives with his Mom?" He told me this - exactly, "Yeah, yeah, he lives out there with his people." I said, "His mom and dad?" Again he replied, "Yeah, with his people." So I concluded that maybe that is the cool term to describe living at home with mom and 'em - 'I live with my people." I guess that works.

I think I find myself bothered by the whole 'grown man living with his mom' phenomenon because it seems to be growing and spreading. I believe too many of these 'men' are missing the crucial maturing aspect that comes with being self sufficient. Many of these men are making children of their own who are living with their mama's while daddy refuses to make strides to either marry mama or at least make a Daddy's home for their children. We are in enough of a predicament now with well over half of all Black children being born to single mothers - allowing grown, healthy men to just live at home and sleep in the same bedroom they had when they were 4 years old is insane to me. Insane and crippling in the long run.

Absolutely nuts-

TTBM