Silent No More!

There comes a time in a persons life when they can no longer sit still and watch others buck the system. That time came for me on Monday night, however before we discuss Monday, a little background information is necessary. Lately I’ve become something of a germ-a-phob. I hate hospitals, clinics and medical offices…I’m afraid there are germs everywhere. The grab bars on the bus, door handles in public places, even menu’s at restaurants gross me out because of the millions of billions of unseen bacteria which lingers on those items. I carry hand sanitizer with me every where I go and use it frequently. And to top it off, I’m a stickler for basic manners. Yet, it seems that most people throw hygiene and caution to the wind and do as they please, this infuriates me!

Over and over again, I’ve been a witness to nasty habits! I was hanging out with a friend at a local hospital (gross) where she was doing a rotation and observed an attending doctor leave a restroom stall and the restroom – WITHOUT WASHING HER HANDS! Over a year ago, I was helping in the kitchen at a masjid event. An uncle cut himself while chopping vegetables, but continued…he was BLEEDING! That disgusted me. For all I know, he could have HIV and now he’s bleeding all over the onions. I was polite, pretending to care for his health, but really just wanting his bloody self out of the kitchen. With the help of a few other people who were equally grossed-out, we got him, his bloody knife and onions out of the kitchen and I had to stop to bleach everything for good measure before resuming the preparation of the meal. At yet another masjid, I’ve watched people eat out of the serving pots…ON SEVERAL occasions! Time after time I bite my tongue and simply avoid the tainted dish. And a while back, I was at the ACME ready to get a salad from the salad bar when I observed some random old guy stick his hand in the olives and eat one before continuing his shopping. Again, I said nothing. It happened so fast, I was so shocked that I didn’t have time to react. Each time I am forced to observe someone display poor hygiene manners it turns my stomach and makes my blood boil! How dare they subject everyone else to their nastiness!?

This brings me to Monday night, where I could no longer be silent. Again, I was at ACME. I wanted to buy a loose roll to make a hoagie for dinner. I head over to the bakery where there is a woman, about my age, selecting rolls so I wait. Then I notice, she isn’t using the wax paper or the tongs, and not only that…she’s feeling all the unwrapped rolls with her BARE HANDS and passing them over and repeating the process with new rolls. Something inside me snapped. I tried to reign myself in, to not be that angry psycho, but just a concerned customer. I approached this nasty shopper! “Excuse me!” She turned, thinking I wanted to get past her. I moved in closer, within a foot of her (this is intimidating, because I was invading her space.) With an even but stern tone, I said, “you know there is wax paper and frankly, it’s rude and nasty for you to touch all the rolls, with your bare hands and then put them back. It’s very unhygienic! No one wants rolls you’ve touched all over!”

She was shocked, and immediately she started apologizing and looking down. She even backed away from me. Then she asked me to hand her the wax paper! Oh yeah, I had the upper hand! So I demanded that she use the wax paper, which she promptly grabs….and I walk away, triumphant! But disappointed, because God knows who else touched the rolls before she or I arrived. This meant no hoagie for me that night. There is a moral to this story, by confronting offenders one bears the risk of being beat-up, or shot as the case may be in Philadelphia, but that risk is small. Most people will apologize, conform to the proper hygienic standard and perhaps attempt to change their ways as they never know who is watching and will confront them in the future!