Painting a bullseye on stupidity

Why do stupid people continue to do stupid things that make our community the butt of ridicule, or at the very least, make us stand out for all the wrong reasons? Two recent incidents are propagating that
And to make matters worse the recent stupids had access to paint!

On the recent election night, some dim-witts thought they'd send a message to mayoral candidate Karen Young by splashing profanities and racial slurs in white spray-paint across the tailgate of her pickup truck. That's a hate crime, folks. Right here in one of the most multi-cultural communities in the province. That's deplorable, and again, it's something that people outside our community are already commenting on. Great P.R.
You can forget the splash parks, the white sand beaches, the outdoor playground and our welcoming by nature atmosphere when you've got back-woods, backwards people with this kind of a mindset creating a wave of negative publicity with the swipe of a spray can. Quite literally, this ridiculously stupid action has painted all of us with the same brush.
We should all be angry.
The second round of painted stupidity has to go to the folks with Alberta Transportation. The new street lines near the high school and Vera. M. Elementary School are more of a liabilty for drivers and pedestrians than the faded out lines and complete absence of any roadway lane dividers we have managed to drive with over the last several decades.
Now we can't drive in the curb lanes? Oops, they're not lanes any more, they're parking stalls. Right. On a curve. Near two busy schools. Approaching railway tracks. In a community where many drivers still conduct illegal U-turns to get a spot closer to the Post Office doors or a Main Street liquor store. But now we can park on the largest curve of the busiest local roadways beside our two most populus schools ? And transportation official don't think there's going to be issues? ... Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Making matters even worse ... but ever-so Lac La Biche ... Not only have Alberta Transportation crews messed up a perfectly good stretch of driving road, they've measured it wrong. The parking lane as you come around the corner north of the mosque, for heck sakes, is wider than the newly painted driving lane! In fact, a recent night-time mission with a tape measure and flashlight by POST staff shows that parts of the roadway - considered a provincial highway within an urban centre - has lane widths far less than Alberta Transportation standards allow.
And did anyone contact community members to say things were changing? Did anyone inform community members that this area - which has not reported a single serious crash or pedestrian incident in decades - is now in need of changes?
Hundreds, thousands of motorists drive this route every day and have done so, without serious incident for decades. And a good portion of that traffic holds our most precious cargo - children on their way to and from school. But with the swipe of a brush, our provincial highway custodians have coloured over that history of transport and near-perfect driving.
In one of the busiest parts of the community, with some of the most delicate human cargo, the powers-that-be have screwed up.

A few things I personally can't wait for ... The first time a police officer tries to ticket someone for driving in the parking lane who didn't realize their error because the road lines are too confusing, the first vehicle to be rear-ended after parking in the parking lane at the bottom of the hill right on the corner, the first person to be sideswiped by someone illegally changing lanes and crossing the solid white line that is supposed to keep us out of the parking lane, and of course, the number one future event ... the day that Alberta Transportation crews actually install signs or some other form of communication with our community to say what the hell the rules of the road are for this improperly installed cluster-mess they have created.
We can't even complain to our municipal representatives since they have no jurisdiction over the piece of provincial roadway. They weren't even told the lines were changing.
The lines need to be removed.

Stupid.