In the heated rush of Midtown Manhattan’s evening traffic, actor and Twitter connoisseur Alec Baldwin decided to share his displeasure with his followers. Specifically, he was angry that a bunch of protesters were causing all the blockage.
Protestors have blocked off a huge quadrant of midtown traffic in support of a higher minimum wage. I support their goal, not their method.
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) April 15, 2015
That’s not all. Baldwin spent the next five minutes expounding upon his anti-traffic thoughts via the confines of 140 characters.
Life in NY is hard enough as is. The goal is to not make it more so. How does clogging rush hour traffic from 59th St to 42 do any good?
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) April 15, 2015
NY's ethos dissolves every day that individuals or groups put their needs/goals ahead of everyone else's
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) April 15, 2015
There are ways to rally people to your cause without inconveniencing an entire City.
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) April 15, 2015
Despite the passion behind Baldwin’s Twitter treatise, he never once mentions the precise details of the cause. What were the protesters protesting? What made them so angry that they desired to cripple the city’s roads?
According to The New York Times, it was a rally calling for livable wages for workers. Specifically, they were protesting current minimum wage rates.
You were on your way somewhere, right? Driving or biking, maybe, when you encountered those protesters calling for a $15 minimum wage? They converged on Columbus Circle as they marched to Times Square, joining tens of thousands of people around the country calling for better pay.
Rachel Swarns’s satirical piece acknowledges Baldwin’s ire, but it ultimately calls him out with a calming conclusion.
The next time you’re stuck in traffic because of a rally for a living wage, please don’t pick up your smartphone to post your complaint on Twitter.
Think instead of the workers who are trying to put food on their tables and keep a roof over their heads. Remind yourself that if traffic is your biggest hassle on a Wednesday night in New York City, you’re probably doing just fine.
Sure, getting in traffic sucks. Surviving only on the small variety of combinations possible with Ramen noodles, peanut butter, and jelly sucks a lot more.
Baldwin later admitted his support for the rally’s cause, but didn’t back down from his irritations with the traffic it caused.
(Via Twitter and The New York Times)