Antoine's Assessments

Today, when I logged on this morning, I noticed that there were users online. 9,025 people total...

I know for a fact that there has to be something wrong here, unless people are making new user names.

If that was the case, blogs on the website would be going like crazy posted on the front blogs home page.

Am I the only who sees or thinks that something isn't right about that or are there actually that many users online?

I was going to take the letter "G" out of the word Dunking and made it "Dunkin'", but I didn't want to make this topic sound like I was talking about Dunkin Donuts--

--But the title up above is true. Dunking does hurt. Today, I was on my way to Mayfair by stopping at my guy's house so he can take me up there so I can by some shoes. (He gets dressed like a female meaning he slow and takes up most of the day for nothing.)

Anyways, I was outside shooting around on the basketball court he has with an almost flat basketball and I did a couple of lay ups and shot and missed some baskets, and then I dunked a couple of times.

Unfortunately, afterwards I went overboard and started dunking like crazy and hit my right wrist twice on the rim and scratched my hand on something above his rim tied down like a plastic lock of some sort; you may know what I'm talking about. When I checked my hand, that was it. Luckily, blood didn't come outside of my hand, but it is surely stinging now when I try to ball my fist up or squeeze my left down.

I'm not dunking no more for a very long time. In fact, as of this day, "I HATE DUNKING!"

Striking punch, after punch, after punch, after punch--

--There are too many incidents going on throughout our Transit System involving drivers being punched, passengers being punched, or school kids running muck and disturbing the peace throughout most of their bus rides to and from school and home and/or even on the weekends.

Let's recap what has happened:

Incident 1 - A guy in a red shirt and black jeans runs on a bus and assaults a bus driver and frightening passengers as the bus comes to a stop running up on a curb almost close to a tree, the dude just gets off the bus and walks away thinking everything was cool, but wasn't in the end after he was caught a week and a half to two weeks later.

Incident 2 - Students riding the bus from St. Charles has been a constant problem every since most of last year and years before that going to and from school and this year, they've started a fight with a random dude for no reason because he wasn't wearing Name Brand Clothing. Senseless and foolishness acts like that was nothing more than cowardly and wannabe punks like those kids who attack people younger than them and possibly shorter than them, as Sherriff David Clarke would put it.

Incident 3 - A bus driver was assaulted after telling a guy to get off the bus for disrupting other passengers after she was nice enough to let him on the bus because his bus passed expired on the last day it came to an end. I think the dude knew that, he was just being dumb and after she was struck, a couple of days later, the same guy who hit the bus driver was actually one of two guys riding the 21 who tried to take a UWM Students iPOD, which brings me to the next incident.

Incident 4 - A UWM Student had her iPOD stolen and she was fighting back and a lot of other passengers were helping out, but it became too much and the dude went got away free by taking her iPOD. A couple of days later, someone spotted the dude who took the girl's iPOD and he was recently caught. As for the second dude that was involved in it, I don't know if he was caught or if the dude who punched the bus driver in incident two was caught after the days the girl from UWM had her iPOD taken and if they were hanging out together (for all of the wrong reasons) to pull the crap that they had did.

The UWM student said "when goes around, comes around". Karma will come back to haunt you (the dudes). Well, it did and now they are where they are at now.

Incident 5 - A bus driver was assaulted as of Wednesday after telling some dude to stop banging on the seats and talking so loud and as the bus came to a stop to let off people from the destination, the driver was struck in the face with a broken nose all because he asked someone to stop making beats banging on the window and seats and was asked to lower his voice.

Incident 6 - This incident occurred as a passenger that was sitting down asked the bus driver did a certain bus go to a destination and if I remember correctly either the passenger was on the 12, 23, or the 76 asking the driver did the bus she was on was going to 60TH & Hampton (if I'm not mistakening). Right there in the front, standing up close to the exit next to the passenger in the right some dude struck a lady for no reason all because she just asked a question to the bus driver to which she may have not known.

Six incidents throughout this year is way too many and now I think it's time for passengers and drivers of the Milwaukee County Transit System to get down and get personal because apparently even Private Security which is through Wackenhut, working with the Milwaukee County Transit System isn't enough.

I would hate to be another victim if it came down to any situation for no reason I would get struck, but I will tell you that I will be fighting back no question or doubt it. This has gone way too long and too far for innocent passengers and drivers are being violated for unnecessary intentional purposes. I think passengers who have been struck and violated should be carrying pepperspray as well. It's not considered a weapon, like you can just hit someone with a bottle and they're going to go unconcious.

The MCTS has been asking for protective shields since 1996. If they've been asking for that for 12 years then why hasn't that stuff been done or put up already? Now, these men and women throughout our Transit System has no other alternative than to carry pepperspray just to protect thereselves, because we all know that one or two Milwaukee County Transit Security Guards isn't going to be nowhere near enough to stop this problem, but will MCTS finally get what they have been wanting and asking for for these past 12 years, getting it approved by the Milwaukee County Executive Board?

To tell you the truth, I'm starting to get uncomfortable riding the city bus myself and if this continues, somewhere down the line some day, not to be jinxing this or anything, there won't be any more city bus riding anymore which means MCTS stations and drivers won't be making their money that do make driving on their routes. I think many of us who are just a bit uncomfortable or feeling afraid need to start going on the defense and go on the offense when being threatened or violated.

I wasn't gone that long, but I had to take care of some business as of yesterday and I feel that part one of my mission has been completed.

I went down to Chicago to turn in my application to Amtrak for three job positions I've applied for and I'm hoping I get something good out of this.

I was also hanging around for two hours to see what was new and what was going on Wednesday afternoon. I explored around for a little while, had a couple of bites to eat (once after I got off the train and as I left the Amtrak Human Resources Building, and went down to this building called the CitiGroup Center).

The CitiGroup Center didn't look like a mall to me, but it had more restaurants than stores, but there were stores in there, but just not as many as you would think at your typical mall like Mall of America, and Gurnee Mills. Hey, what can you do? I'm not complaining. I got some sight-seeing in before 3:15PM.

Anyways, I'm hoping something good will come out of all the whole applying for a job in Amtrak. I'm willing to go above and beyond outside the work of Retail to working in the Miscellaneous Employment Department. I've applied for a position here in Milwaukee at our Intermodal Station and I've applied for two positions down at the Chicago Union Station. Either way it goes, if I'm in there or if I get in there (I should say), I'm done with Retail for good. I'm hoping, wishing, and praying to GOD that I get this job.

I always wondered what the feeling is like or would be like working a job out of your own state into another state...

If you ride the city bus in the Winter, then you are very familiar that the bus can be an extreme hassle. It's cold, and sometimes above the 0 degree mark, but much of the time, it's below -0 degrees.

You also know that the bus happens to run very late as much as more than half hour or more (30+ minutes) tops because of the cautious driving they have to do with heavy vehicle.

It's not a lot any bus rider particularly myself and a lot of others can do, but to just deal with it or hope that this Winter the County Buses can make some changes according to their times they are expected to be at their major destinations and their layovers for this Winter, but 9 times out of 10 it may not happen; which brings up the question, "Will a lot of people be riding the bus this Winter for those who don't have cars or does have a car, but doesn't drive in the Winter Time"?

With what has happened last Winter, no one wants to see a repeat of the same routes or more drivers getting stuck in the snow almost their whole shift and people don't want to wait so long on the bus stop that they're nearly are going to end up in the hospital with frost bites or for another reason if they have a problem of waiting outside for so long when they can only take so much of being outside to begin with.

Most of the time, people who do ride the bus are more focused and worried about the bus coming on time. The workers of the bus company are focused with the safety of all passengers which they have to put first. Hopefully, there can be a change to that, but somehow even though it is what the people want, more than likely it would have to go through the bus company to agree to those changes before the Winter even hits.

Last Winter, the snow was so bad that it caused County Bus transportation to shut down it's route services. Mitchell Field had numerous delayed and cancelled air flights, Amtrak delayed it's train services for some time to make sure traveling on the railroad was safe enough and Greyhound cancelled it's driving services as well.

Let's start with our own County Transportation. It was said that many buses on the Milwaukee County Transit System were getting stuck in the snow for as long as 4 hours maximum and some even longer. Some drivers couldn't continue their route and they were getting paid to sit until a tow truck that pulls buses and trucks was to arrive where those drivers were at. The Waukesha Metro Transit was also on the alert as well.

Due to one of the four heavy snowstorms that we had on the day where many of the MCTS bus drivers were on their routes, there was no other alternative than to stop all their routes at 5:30PM. Waukesha Metro did the same but only two hours after at 7:30PM.

Now, as far as flying is concerned, during the winter, there were many people who were trying to make in to Milwaukee and going out of Milwaukee and people had family coming in from other States, but of course with the snow being as bad, it was very hard for those people who work at Mitchell Field to clean up some of the runways to give clearance for planes to take off and land in their correct zone bay. It forced those to turn around and put their trips on hold for another day until it was possible to leave town to go wherever those people who are normal everyday plane riders were heading. Many people stayed overnight at the airport until the next day because they didn't want to burn up anymore gas than what they already did to get to the airport in the first place.

With Amtrak and Greyhound, it was hard to believe that it wasn't bad to ride the Amtrak train on the railroads during a bad Winter Season full of different snowstorms on those 4 days we had more than 12"+ of snow, but we did. It wasn't so lucky for Greyhound riders because just like at Mitchell, their buses were cancelled. Without any clearing on the roads or Airports, there isn't much anyone can do, but to either change their plans or to take the train and not because it gets a lot of business, but because sometimes it's usually just the only smart option left to go with rather than to sleep overnight at the Airport. Sure, it may take a day or two to wherever you have to go, but if you're going some place nice and warm and comfortable and snow-free for some fun in the sun, you'll most likely go with that option.