Giving a Soldier The Finger is NOT Cool

Boys and girls, giving someone the finger is not cool. What's even more uncool is giving the finger to strangers while riding on a moving vehicle... and being caught by an enraged military man.

That's the unfortunate fate of two juvenile boys sitting across each other at the jeepney (one of whom was seated next to me) this afternoon. Like most boys their age, these two felt like fooling around. Their choice of stupid gimmick: giving the finger to while the jeepney strode past La Trinidad. And then unexpectedly, when one of the passengers got off the jeep, an enraged military man confronted the two young boys. He angrily asked the two of they thought it was okay or cool to give the finger as if the act was not going to offend anyone. Did they think that by raising the finger they were above everyone else? 

The wrath of the soldier frightened me a little, I must admit, but I'm on his side. Giving someone the finger is a juvenile, offensive (that goes without saying) act, and those two kids should know just that. I get the solider's point of feeling offended - he even said something about how he came all the way from Mindanao (it's a place in the Philippines where it's almost like Iraq or Afghanistan, i.e. almost a war zone with the clashes of extreme leftists and the army) and then he gets here only to be given the finger to. By the sound of that, the solider (and any soldier for that matter) was not to be messed with. The last thing the soldier said could have made the two young boys wet or crap their pants: that the soldier could easily kill them (savagely) if they ever do again what they were doing.

Personally, I don't blame the soldier for feeling enraged. I mean, here are two young kids giving an obscene gesture to strangers - who are teaching these kids what's right and wrong? It's unbelievable how young kids are exposed to such obscenity and nobody tells them to stop or to not ever do it again.