Clint Eastwood would call them "punks"

I ski a lot, mostly at Mt.Norquay, but sometimes I go to Lake Louise. Louise is indeed a world class ski hill and I enjoy it tremendously.

Couple of weeks ago, I was at Louise. I did a couple of quick Summit runs in the morning and then decided to go back to the base, to take a Glacier quad back to the Top of the World. People who skied at Lake Louise know what I am talking about. Everybody else, try to come to Lake Louise....

The lineup was considerable and I took a singles line as I was all by myself. Waiting time is really never long anyway, but it usually goes faster in the singles line. While waiting, I heard how one guy was calling his buddies to switch from the singles line to the ‘all other people’ line. I looked back and saw that there was suddenly more space in the middle, and I saw this dude crossing the fence, leaving the singles line and lining up now in the ‘big’ line. Others followed him, and I think there were 4 or 5 of them.

They (thought they) were "smart". All of them lined up first in the singles line even though they were not skiing alone, and then when there was an opportunity for even faster approach to the chair lift, they moved to the other line. This dude who initiated this rude behavior, a ‘pack leader’ was very young, with ugly red beard, a snowboarder (For the record: I have nothing against snowboarders!), in all ‘fancy’ clothes (actually in tasteless clothes). He was your typical ‘punk’ if I can say that. Clint Eastwood would call him a "punk", I am sure.

I thought, well, there is nothing that can prevent idiots to disrespect the world and people. This happens and it will always happen, especially with these ‘dudes’ who think they own the world. It was almost my turn to board the chairlift, and I was lined up with 2 older ladies. I could see these young ‘gentlemen’ getting on the lift in front of us, so they really made it faster! When we were almost ready to board our chair, one young guy passed us, actually went between us, as a snowblower (all of us almost fell, and looked at each other acknowledging that very rude behavior happened) to catch the next chair to be with his buddies, but somehow he was too slow (even with that speed!), and his only choice was to wait for the another chair.

It happened that these 2 ladies and I were boarding the next chair, and this dude sat with us. He was sitting on my right hand side, and 2 ladies were on my left hand side. All of us asked him, almost as one voice – what was he thinking, passing people in the lineup and disrespecting everyone? He said that he wanted to catch his friends, and we said that his friends were equally disrespectful, by changing the lines. He was quite young, and I couldn’t see his face because of goggles. We asked him if he were going to apologize, but he refused, stating that he had ‘right’, that ‘he skis a lot’, that ‘he knows the owner’…We were a bit shocked, as this punk actually attacked us instead of apologizing.

I was waiting for him to say:"Don't you know who I am?" :)

I grabbed my camera and said:”OK, perhaps you can become a star. I will shoot a movie with you as a main character so we can show to the world how smart you are. Everybody else is stupid, waiting in the line, but you are smart and you deserve to go first”. I pointed the camera towards him, and he tried to push my arm, but he didn’t succeed. He became more assertive as he knew what the power of the media is these days. I was pretending that I was recording him – I certainly didn’t want to waste my memory space on this human garbage.

Ladies asked him where he learned to behave like that. Was it his parents, family…..school….friends….He got a bit agitated and said how I “didn’t have right to record him”, “how that was against the law”…..I said that he was probably recorded at least 15 times on that day, by surveillance cameras. He then said that he would go to see the owner, and that he would go to talk to RCMP, and I said: “Sure, let’s go together; I will be happy to talk to them”.

He also demanded that the video doesn’t get released, as he was in total control of the situation. He also said that he would sue me for filming him. He also asked me for my name, I guess he wanted to make sure that he can sue me..hahaha. He thought that he was "smart".

It was amazing that he never said anything what he should’ve said. There were no any traces of apology, magical world: ”Sorry”….Well, you know what I mean. Nothing that is civilized came from his mouth, or from his gestures. He even tried to use a force, as I said, to prevent filming.

Someone could say, “Let him off hook as he is so young”….or “He is just a kid”…

I did certainly let him off hook, as the ladies as well. We didn't need any more demonstration of power.

At the top, I could see that this rude young man went to his buddies, probably to tell them how we ‘abused’ him, and who knows what else. For me, it didn't matter anymore, as I was here to ski, not to educate young Albertans. I went to the Top of of the World chair lift, and there was a small lineup, so I had to wait, probably a minute or two. But then, there was this ‘pack leader’, he skied down and approached me, and started almost yelling at me: ‘What did you do the child?”. “Why did you abuse the child?”.

When you hear these words, in any public area, it certainly becomes uncomfortable. He was using all these catchy words, as his intention was to make this public.

I responded after a bit of silence and looking at him (he said impatiently – ‘do you understand English”?) with: ”Excuse me?, I don’t know what you are talking about”. I strictly minded my business. He started again, almost yelling, asking for the video, ‘ordering me’ not to release it.

This was absolutely crazy. This punk even didn’t know that I was the right person, but nevertheless he chose to be aggressive, rude, and basically he wanted to fight. I ignored him and didn’t want to escalate it. I was afraid that I could hurt him and then I would get into trouble. I was ignoring him and I was minding my business.

He went to board the chair lift (again not waiting in the lineup, but squeezing in from the side), and I boarded my chair right after him.

During the lift ride I was thinking how all of this was crazy. All of them were so rude and disrespectful, and they never understood that. They thought that they were right. That they ‘deserved’ it. I remembered how I behaved and how I was taught to behave by my parents, by my teachers.

At the top, this punk even went to talk to the chair lift operator, I could see him, pointing at me, and when I got off, he started yelling again (“You’ll have to give up that video!”) as I was departing the loading area. I stopped and looked at him, and as this was an invite, he skied (well, he was on the snowboard) towards me, and started basically threatening me: ”You’ll return that video, and you’ll never publish it”. “I will go after you all day……””bla…bla…bla…”.

At that moment I was thinking how this punk was ruining my day, but if I do anything except leaving, I could ruin it even more. I said that he must’ve mixed me up with somebody, and I left.

I was sorry that I was in this great country called Canada that gives such tremendous freedom to its citizens and especially to the kids. This ‘pack leader’, and all of them were more protected than me, or anyone who would point out this disgusting behavior. If I did something like that, in country of my origin, I would be given a lesson that I would never forget. I would never thought about suing someone, calling for ‘child’ abuse, especially after I abused thousands of other people. This idiot was begging for a knock out.

Unfortunately, this is a common behavior here and elsewhere. This is normal. It is encouraged by the system in which only “I” and “Me” are important. Parents teach kids to be aggressive. Parents teach kids to be disrespectful. Majority of media shows materials that propagate so much violence. That's quite sad.

I know that there are different reasons for this kind of behavior. It is all connected. More aggression in politics, in workplace, in schools, in media…..less gentleness, cavalierly, honesty.

The more sensitive you are, the harder they hit you. Hit the gentle, kind and wise, propagate aggressive, selfish and dumb. The best way to control the sheeple.

On the other hand, I know that many will agree with me, and I know that their kids would never do what these punks did. These people are real and gentle people, and they understand what good manners and discipline means. Their kids are kind and gentle. Some of their kids have already became gentle and kind adults. They are the force that will help to dismantle this system that doesn't work anymore.