A Heineken at the Transit Exchange

I love travelling by transit. The last few months, I have been in my car way too much. How I missed letting someone else do the driving while I read, answered email, or socialized. How I missed the extra, no longer gas money in my pocket.

Early this month, I bought my bus pass. And I have been trying to schedule so riding the bus is workable with my busy life. .

Today, I went down to the transit exchange to catch a bus  to Sahali. As I walked by the bus shelter area,  someone from within a crowd of teenagers yelled out "hey, there's Arjun Singh!!!!". I craned my neck in an attempt to spot this enthusiastic person, but only caught a fleeting glimpse of what seemed a young man in amongst all the other people.

I walked to my bus stop on the exchange and sat on the nearest bench. The enthusiastic young man came over. He said, "you are Arjun Singh, aren't you, I've only seen you in the paper".  I confirmed that I was indeed me, and the young man shook my hand and sat down beside me.

It was then I noticed the large bottle of Heineken beer in his hand. And I became quite alarmed. 

I wanted to have a conversation with this young man. I've longed maintained that the solution to bad behaviour among young people is to create relationships, show genuine interest, win their trust, and then start helping them get on track.

But, today, that blasted green bottle got in the way. I told the young man he needed to get rid of the bottle. He politely told me he would, but only through bodily functions. I tried to reason with him, explaining to him that he was making people feel unsafe. I used the tried and true example of little old ladies who ride the bus. To no avail.

The young man soon tired of me, got up, and left. I started dialing the bylaw officers as soon as he was out of earshot. Others called the RCMP. This time, it was entirely the right thing to do.

Comments

[Christopher Foulds]

Well, if nothing else, at least the kid has good taste in beer!

[Quimby]

Why is a beer in public so alarming?
Many jurisdictions in the world allow consumption of alcohol in public. We just need to get over our moralistic attitudes.

[Bridge Sanderson]

yes my friend be afraid of the under age drinker` I never drank underage?? did you??? It is funny how we put the politicians in place that "seem" to do no wrong. Later to find out that they had a worse habit.
do not buy them booze but maybe take a small listen to what that kid has said he/she may make some sence.

[Arjun Singh]

Quimby, I don't have a huge problem with beer in public typically. But, I think a lot of people do. I certainly think the downtown transit exchange is not an appropriate place for public consumption of alcohol...makes too many other people feel very uncomfortale, and that's a problem.

Bridge, you make some good points. I drank underage, yes. I do think its very important to listen to younger people, but again I think the transit exchange is a wrong place to consume alcohol.