I love my neighborhood. It's a 10 minute walk from my front door to LA's Farmer's Market and The Grove shopping center. I was making that walk Tuesday evening, heading over to the movie theater for a 7:30 p.m. screening of "Fracture." I had crossed Third Street and was lost in deep thought: "Should I get a lemonade with my popcorn or a diet coke?"
Then I hear a guy, stopped at a red light, yelling from his car at some young tourists - two guys and a girl - who are taking pictures in front of the Farmer's Market. "Why don't you guys grab each others a** and let her take a picture of THAT?" Then he says, "You f*****g f*****ts!" and drives off. The trio looked rattled and it took me a few seconds to process what was happening as i kept walking to the theater. Who DOES something like that? And right there in front of the Farmer's Market where people from all over to have a good time?
But the bigger issue, I think, is the use of the f-bomb. I'm not even writing it out because it's an ugly word - made even uglier by the way the "man" in the car said it - with such hate.
Earlier in the day, I had guested on Marty Keegan's NowInLA.com's "Hollywood Babble On" show where we talked about the Don Imus situation and about how damaging the n-word and the f-bomb can be to our society. Some callers were saying, 'What's the big deal?' and I'm glad I pressed the point that it IS a big deal - especially coming from people who have a very public platform and probably have listeners like that idiot in the car.