A Lesson Learned

Sometimes our mistakes go straight to the top. It’s fine! At least now I feel like a citizen. I didn’t know that a law was passed that anyone who is found at a non-smoking establishment must be punished. I really had no clue what was going on when the police came up to me the other night and smacked me with a huge ticket. It was mean and unfair.

Last Thursday I really didn’t want to go out but my friends kept phoning me. “I will come but I won’t stay that longer because I’m out of steam and have to get back to work tomorrow,” I said. “Don’t worry. It’s Thursday. Just come we’ll have a great time,” they told me. I wasn’t going to have fun. I was going to be punished but didn’t know it at the time.

I went and sat with my friends. They started drinking and joking around. I didn’t. I lit a cigarette just for fun. I could immediately see a group of police approaching us with notebook and pens. Without any negotiation, they gave me a ticket for 1000 Shekels. Looking closer into my phone I’m holding and I see written ONE THOUSAND SHEKELS. INSANITY!

I smoked for a while when I was in high school, but got very sick from the cigarettes. My school principal took me to the hospital once. A doctor I saw there found out that I was smoking and told me that cigarettes would completely damage my lungs and body. I didn’t know if he was joking or serious. But what he said made me realize later that if I didn’t stop smoking it would kill me. Since then I stop smoking.

I was truly distraught when the police stopped me. They could have given a ticket to anyone who was in that room. There were a number of white people who were drinking and smoking there. I think they gave me the ticket on purpose and were trying show themselves as heroes. They might have been racist but I don’t know. I respect the law but am upset about this racist discrimination by the police. They must know that there is no difference between lovers of Israel – it does not matter where we come from, we are all here together. Maybe they thought I was the leader of our group of friends who were consuming alcohol that night. I should have known not to go to a place that doesn’t fit my personality….

However, friends are important. They’re not like fruits we buy them in the market. That was just a distinction that the police made. My friends are there for me any time I need them. I WILL PAY YOU THE TICKET.