Who are these people?

I drive for a living. I work for a local, community-based mental health agency and I am a Courier. You know, the guy who delivers and picks up inter-office mail, confidential medical files, client medications and anything else that needs to be picked up or delivered. I drive as far south as Lynnwood, Washington in the morning and as far north as Sedro Woolley, Washington in the afternoon. It's a total of about 225 miles every day.

I really like this job, for reasons that I will probably write about at some future date. But for now here is my story.

I drive safely. I don't speed (by very much) and I always signal, look in my mirrors, and, above all, I am courteous to others. My mother taught me that courtesy would always pay big dividends and it is true, if the others are also interested in being courteous.

So today I was driving north on I-5. Around Smokey Point I was passed by a Mercedes driven by a well dressed, middle-aged man. This man had a three-ring binder balanced on his steering wheel; his right arm resting comfortably on the head rest of the passenger seat and his left hand held his cell phone to his left ear. I guess he was steering with his knees. As I was traveling at 75 mph at the time and he passed me VERY quickly, I surmised that he must have been going at least 85 mph, perhaps faster.

He was to my left and when he was about a half car length ahead of me he quickly pulled into my lane. I slammed on my brakes and honked the horn. What do you think happened? HE flipped ME off! HE flipped ME off! What gall!

This guy had the nerve to insult me when he was the one who was endangering both of our lives! I really wanted to do something but . . .what? What can one do?

Who are these people? Who are these people who no longer care about their fellow human beings? Who are these people who disobey laws? Who are disrespectful in furthering their own desires? What are they teaching their children? And what are the rest of us going to do about these peoples' self-centered habits? What can we do?

Sometimes I worry about where we are going and what we are doing!!!