If you don't know about Greg's sense of, and quest for, justice, then that probably means you have never met him. He stands up for the cause of justice all the time. Not just for himself, but for society in general. Like a good wife, I always stand behind him. Sometimes, like a bad wife, I stand way behind him in hopes that no one will know we're together. But almost always I agree with and support him.
A few months ago we were on our way from Katowice to Krakow to go to an important, church related dinner. There is a toll freeway running between these cities that makes it faster to get there (it takes about an hour). You pay about 3 dollars when you get on and 3 dollars when you get off. This particular day there was TONS of construction. There's always construction and the traffic is directed to the other side of the freeway now and again so that it becomes a much slower moving 2 lane highway, which makes us mad that we have to pay for it. But THIS time traffic was crawling at a snail's pace. It took us about 2 HOURS to get across that freeway. It was two hours full of us not believing it. We were listening to the radio and lots of people called in to tell what a scandal it was, the traffic on that stretch of "free"way (and how they were going to miss a wedding or their daughter's birthday party because of it). Greg called in as well and encouraged other drivers to refuse to pay at the exit gate.
When we got the exit gate I was astonished to see people giving MONEY to these thieves (THEY should have been bringing out baked goods and apologizing to all the exasperated drivers)! Greg parked our car at the gate (there are lots of gates) and refused to pay. They wouldn't let us through, of course, so Greg asked to speak to a manager or something. The security that is always there came and talked to Greg for awhile. We were there holding up traffic with people having to try to get out of line behind us etc. for about a half an hour. Some people yelled at us to pay the stupid money and let everyone through. Some people got out of their cars (like Greg) to talk to Greg and the security guards and give them a piece of their minds--agreeing with Greg. Because causing a ruckus was not our only goal, we continued to refuse to pay. That meant that the police would have to come and get Greg's information, since, if he went through without paying he would be breaking the law and he would have to go to court. None of Greg's sympathizers agreed to take out their IDs. In the end they just paid and went through. (I felt like telling everyone--since everyone coming up to that gate was angry about the condition on that freeway--that the freeway owners were making idiots of us all! It seemed that if instead of demanding money of us, they asked us to get up on our cars and jump up and down like monkeys people would do it, just to finally be through).
Just our luck that there happened to be a newspaper reporter going through around this time. He paid, got through the gate, parked somewhere on the other side and came back with his notebook to get some information for an article that he would write. It was an online article about Greg's rebellion and there was a survey along with it, "are drivers justified in not paying the toll" 3500 people answered and 96% of them thought Greg was in the right (I bet if they'd been there they would've paid anyway!).
So the freeway company sued Greg for not paying (all this for 3 dollars!) and Greg filed a counter suit (of course) which was in process until...
Yesterday that same reporter called to tell us that the freeway company was being fined by the government and that they were required to lower the toll until the freeway is actually running as it should with no construction.
Today, we read the article about it and find out that when the local government of Krakow heard about about Greg's rebellion they sued the company. It has been charged with the crime of demanding payment from customers (when they were not providing the service people were expected to pay for)!! They have been fined 1.3 million zlotys (besides having to lower the toll)! This is a direct result of my amazing husband standing up for the cause of justice!
And we made it to our dinner a little late, but VERY hungry!
You may not be able to read the articles but they have pictures of the freeway and exit gates--none of Greg, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment