Follow The Rules, Pedro

It was soccer practice with the girls yesterday, and we were just finishing up. Beautiful late summer day in the large county park by the river, crystal clear sunshine, just warm enough, and a breeze to take the heat away. The first practice had gone pretty well, and our season was off to a good start.

Just as we were finishing up, a group of about 15 guys rolled up in four or five cars and headed to the volleyball pit on the other side of the play meadow. Everyone was speaking Spanish, so I made the assumption, looking at their cars and such, that they likely were a group of immigrants. Illegal or not, no way to tell, and I didn't really care about that (at least not for the purposes of discussion in this post, anyways). They got organized, and were having a great time playing soon enough. Good on them.

And as I loaded up my truck with balls and cones and gear, up rolls some guy in his totally tricked-out Chevy pick-up. Huge chrome wheels, with spinners. All jacked up, huge chrome roll bar, with 8 spots all lined up on the top. Chrome step rungs, and a gigantic "Bolivia" painted in the back window. Latin music just blaring from the open windows; hell, that's how I noticed him, you couldn't miss this guy and his ride with that goddamn noise--and it was so loud it was noise, not music--blaring from his mobile platform.

In the cab with him, a little brother, maybe a son. Who could tell.

And as I stood in the parking lot, all of 140 yards from the field and the volleyball pit, the same parking lot where all of the other guys had parked their cars and from where they'd walked over, this guy just rolled on down the maintenance path. There's a little sign there that says "Park vehicles only," but no rope, no chain, no kind of barrier at all. It runs up to a point maybe 80 yards from the volleyball pit.

So this shitbird just rolled up the curb, onto the path, and drove his truck down to a point right in front of the picnic shed, in front of the playground, in front of the play meadow, and all of 80 yards from the volleyball pit. Too goo to park with everyone else, for whatever reason he felt he didn't have to follow the rules.

You know, I've been to about 50 foreign countries in my life. And when I leave the USA and go to another country, I'm always careful to follow the rules. I watch and listen and observe, and I try to do as the locals do, because I don't want to look like a fool. I also don't want to offend, and I don't want to look like some kind of arrogant jerkoff. I behave because I'm a representative of my place of origin, and also because I want to show respect for my current place, that I know that I'm a guest, or that I'm new and paying attention to the way things are done locally.

Well, Pedro (or Diego or Pepe or Juan or Julio, whatever) apparently doesn't have any similar kind of concerns. Here's what I observed, and the conclusions that I came to:

He doesn't feel the need to follow the rules. There is no barrier, no chains or bollards to block the way, so that means he CAN drive up there, even though there is a sign that says he is not authorized to do so. Maybe he didn't see the sign; that makes him unobservant of his surroundings, when he shoudl be. Maybe he doesn't read English too well; that makes him not culturally fluent enough to take these kinds of bold steps, especially when there's public parking lot he's driving through to get to the park-employee-only access way. All of the other cars were parked in the parking lot, and indeed, there is a huge parking which is clearly for park users. The place where he parked his truck is quite obviously not for that purpose. But he drove on up there and did it anyway. All of his buddies were in the parking lot, but he chose not to put his truck there with them.

And this is the delicate part: if you're in a foreign country, whether legal or illegal, it's a pretty good idea to blend in. It's a good idea to observe and follow the common rules of the culture and the society in which you have situated yourself. This guy didn't do that, although all of the clues were there. He chose to act upon his native culture, a me-first outlook in which you take advantages whenever and wherever you can, before someone else gets to them. You do what you can until you're ordered not to, usually by a person in a position of serious authority. This case had implied and absent authority. Everyone present made a conscious decision to maintain the tranquility and safety and orderliness of the situation, including all of his volleyball buddies (whom I assume also to be fellow immigrants). But he decided that he didn't have to play by the posted and implied rules. He broke the rules, and he got away with it.

Next time, follow the rules, Recent Arrival Guy. You'll be helping yourself and your entire immigrant class, in many ways. You follow the rules, and you earn respect from those of us native to this culture and society, those of us who pay very close attention to how you and all of your compatriots comport yourselves. When you follow the rules, you show you want to be a part of your adopted location, and you are intentionally leaving the flawed and failed and illegal attitudes of your point of origin behind. So, wake up and smell the situation, and follow the rules.