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September 8, 2006
Rank and File
by Nova Stubbs, insurgent49

A People Mover Warrior Speaks

     Note: This entire column was written aboard Route 36 from UAA to Downtown.

     I don’t own or drive a car. When I tell people this, they often seem confused. I guess I don’t look the part.

     The truth is that I don’t like to drive, and I am not very good at it either. Just sitting in the driver’s seat makes me feel nervous. I ride the bus and it saves me money. The cost of gas, car repairs, and insurance doesn’t touch my wallet.

     Every once and a while, though, I do suffer from road rage. It’s true. I get this great feeling of irritation when the bus is late and is slow moving because I just know I am not going to make my destination on time due to the damn traffic. I have also been pestered by inebriates who want to touch my hair, and once I actually sat in front of a man who had just crapped his pants.

    Living a life dependent on the transit system is not a glorious one. Waiting for a bus that is twenty minutes late in the middle of January sucks. At rush hour, I’ll wait at the bus stop counting all the single occupant vehicles and feel my blood start to boil, which ironically warms me up a bit.
 
     “Make the roads bigger” they say. And I wait there thinking, “No, expand the bus routes and make them more frequent, which in turn would increase ridership and decrease traffic congestion … think of the environment, and think of the money that would be saved.” But, Miss Common Sense at the side of the road doesn’t get much support from the man driving his SUV who wants a bigger road to match his big truck. Instead she’ll get the feel of cold muddy water splashed in her face during break-up season.

    So yes, I ride the bus and sometimes I hate it, but believe it or not, it helps me feel connected with a part of the Anchorage community that otherwise I would not necessarily know if I weren’t a People Mover Warrior.
 
    Sitting and waiting at the bus stop opens me up for conversations …

    About a year ago at the bus stop outside Providence Hospital, I met a teenage girl who was slightly developmentally disabled. She, like many People Mover warriors, approached me for conversation. She said that she was visiting her three-month-old baby at the hospital. I asked what was wrong with her infant. She sighed deeply and stated “I ran out of money for baby formula and thought that it would be fine to give her powdered milk for a few days instead.” She went on further to tell me that her baby was very sick and almost died, and now the State wanted to take the baby away from her.

    Just yesterday I met a man on the bus by the name of JR, and he told me that he had just woken up from a nap, that he needed to take because he had drank so much earlier. He continued to tell me that he was having problems with his wife, because she started doing meth again because her son was being deployed to Iraq soon.

    You may be thinking … what sad stories. But, Anchorage life doesn’t simply stop inside the doors of our cars. It is a reality that we should all experience, because ultimately it will further compel us to help the people of our city.


 

   



      Nova Stubbs is a freelance writer and activist, and is co-founder of Insurgent49. Nova resides in an undisclosed location in downtown Anchorage and may be contacted at nova@insurgent49.com.
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.