Could you do me a favor? Perhaps, since you bothered to ask; just sign here and initial there and there

   Okay people, I have to tell you something. The tread-upons are mad as heck and we're not going to take it anymore. Set the scene PTT, we have no idea what you are thinking about.   Oh, yah, I see.

   In my world, there are people that take all the time and never give, not even thanks. This is about them. We have situations that arise where a person will need help and it will be given and no appreciation will be shown, no acknowledgement that a favor has even been done, as if it were expected or somehow owed to the taker. This creates self-esteem issues for those of us that don't necessarily have any problem going out of our way to help our fellows, some of us consider it one of our finer personality traits that we help people out. Unfortunately, if I do you a favor and you act like it was something I owed you, it tends to make me feel like you think I am an employee of yours, without the paycheck. This is worse than slavery, a scenario where you would have to feed, clothe, and house me. I get nothing from this deal, and it isn't going to happen anymore. I have formed a group, albeit without most members knowing they are in it; but they will when I get the pamphlets printed up and ask them to hand them out. I don't even have the acronym worked out yet, or whether there should be one, can't seem to work Eat Shit Ungrateful Fuckwads into anything catchy.

  The central problem for myself and my fellow trod-upons, is the anything-but-sly, hint-request. For example, I have a friend we will call Isabel. She has roommates in the immense house that they rent and the roommates have small children. One evening not long after she got home from work, the male roommate Greasy was sitting there with the children, watching television or whatever it is he does. She asked wasn't he supposed to be on his way to work and he said well he didn't have a babysitter as his Babymomma was at work. Keep in mind that Isabel had watched the children umpteen plus one times before, almost always after offering because of this sort of hint-request. Isabel said oh and went about her own thing. Greasy was fired as this was not his first time laying out of work for no reason, and the talk behind Isabel's back is that it was her fault. She wasn't asked, but it is somehow her fault because she didn't offer? WTF?

   The most diabolical part of the hint-request is that by not actually asking for the favor, if anything goes wrong, or if a favor is asked in return, the hint-requester acts as if they have no responsibilities because they didn't ask. Complain that they are late getting back when you're babysitting/house-sitting/dogsitting? Well, I didn't ask; you offered. Ask a favor of your own, since you have done these previous favors? Don't throw that in my face, I didn't ask you to do any of that. Very smarmy, ungrateful, fuck-face type attitude, seriously. Don't tell me you owe $X for this or that and only have $Y, when what you mean to say is "Can I borrow $Z?", but you're waiting for me to offer so you don't have to ask. Then, when you take forever to not pay it back you can say that you never asked, as if that somehow means you shouldn't pay it back in a timely manner. Next time go to the fucking bank and hint around.

The main goal of our group will be to lend support to each other as we struggle against our instincts to help people that need help until we are asked. If you are the one that needs help the very least you could and should do is to ask for it honestly and openly. And be appreciative afterward.