Wednesdays

Wednesday is my least favorite day to drive home from work, and I'll tell you why: It's all because of the Baptists. You see, there's a large Baptist church down the street from my house. And, apparently their membership is so large, they had to build a parking deck directly across the street from the church. So, every Wednesday, 2 cops come out to direct traffic so that the Baptists can cross from the parking deck to the church entrance. Now, I have no problem with the parking deck. I have no problem with Wednesday church attendance. I even understand why one wants to cross safely from the parking deck to the church. My problem is this - long before the parking deck, there was a light with a crosswalk and walk signal from the side of the street where the parking deck is to the church. Why can't the Baptists walk the 1/20 of a mile (yes, I got frustrated the other day and measured it), from their cars to the crosswalk? Why do they need a policeman to direct them? Do they really have to be ferried directly across the street? Seriously, I cover the same amount of ground walking from my bathroom to my kitchen, and I have yet to be winded by the journey. Also, I am capable of looking at the lights ahead of me and knowing when the cars are stopping and when they're going. Why must there be a special crosswalk just for the Baptists on Wednesday evenings and Sundays when there is already a perfectly acceptable crosswalk the rest of us use all the time? Also, I feel that I must point out that it's not like the policemen wait for an onslaught or build-up of Baptists to stop traffic. Every time 1 or 2 people want to cross the street, the cops stop the cars. Some days this fiasco adds 15 minutes to my drive home from work, and I only live 10 minutes from my office. I'm not asking for recklessness here, and I'm certainly not advocating jay-walking (the horror!), but I do think we can all use the same crosswalk, Baptists and non-Baptists alike. Maybe it's a bit presumptuous, but I think God would want it that way. And, don't even get me started on the Catholics...