Humanity

Mom, Rob, and I are staying at the Stockton Hilton while visiting my brother and family. The Hilton is one of the better hotels in town, and we splurged a little on the hotel because we drove all the way up here and didn't buy any plane tickets.

So far the hotel has been great, with the exception of one night.

There was a wedding the night before last, and unfortunately, the hotel has one of those designs where rooms look out onto an open courtyard. The room with the wedding reception also opens into the courtyard, so we could hear the music all night. I don't really care too much- it's a wedding after all. I'm not going to complain about someone's big day. Turn the TV up and stay in the room- normally.

But. There was also as softball tournament somewhere close by, and some of the players were staying down the hall from us. Twenty-somethings, getting drunk after the game and ordering pizza. They were also hanging out in the hallway and looking over the balcony at the wedding reception. I was in my room when this happened, but apparently, they eventually made some rude remarks to the wedding party.

I came out of my room when I heard some wedding guests yelling at the softball dorks about being insulted by racial comments and threatening to come upstairs and start a fight. To cut a long story short, police came, the jocks moved to the bar across the street, so did some of the wedding guests, police came again, then the police came a third time and escorted the wedding party out of the hotel after the reception (Can you imagine this happening at your wedding?).

Some of the wedding guests were pretty drunk and rowdy I guess, but I suppose I give them a little slack since they were provoked. They were all pretty young as well, probably all in their twenties.

Here is what really bothers me: Who gets drunk and has the nerve to make nasty comments to people at a wedding? Comments that provoke violence (or the threat of)? RACIAL comments?

Young testosterone-filled binge-drinkers who apparently have no sense of common decency. This is not the first time I have seen jerks like these, and I'm sure it's not the last. I haven't seen any in Argentina, except for American or European tourists. These guys are scary. They are big, strong, drunk, and dumb. A toxic combination.

Part of it is a group mentality, like a pack of wild dogs. I bet if I were to meet any one of them individually, they wouldn't seem so bad. But put them together, and they all convince each other that what they are doing is macho. This is how rapes happen.

Where did these guys come from? How did they turn out this way? Who raised them, and how did they devolve into the cretins they are?

Very, very disturbing.