The Metro Transit Police published this online wanted poster for a suspect, later identified as Opal L. Brown, who threw a cup on urine on a bus driver. (Metro Transit Police)

The list of dismal topics eligible for weekly reflection in a column is long: the Texas Gulf Coast catastrophe; our sociopath in the White House; their sociopath in Pyongyang; the debt ceiling ticking time bomb; Daniel Snyder's overhyped, overpaid, underwhelming football team. Issues worth pondering seem endless.

However, I can't help but focus my musings on an incident that took place in our nation's capital — one that was so degenerate and vulgar as to take the breath away.

Last Saturday, a passenger on a D.C. Metrobus threw a cup of her own urine on the driver, whose offense was telling her to "have a nice day."

Let's retrace what occurred as outlined in a Metro statement. Picture this scene:

As the bus proceeds along Minnesota Avenue, the passenger relieves herself (Metro says its surveillance footage captured her urinating in a cup near the back of the bus). She walks to the front of the bus and waits to disembark; then the bus stops and the doors open. As the passenger is getting off, the driver wishes her a nice day, to which the passenger responds, "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes," replies the driver.

With that, the passenger flings the cup's contents at the driver, throws the cup on the ground, and dashes off the bus and down the block. (This was also caught on surveillance tape.)

The passenger allegedly was 38-year-old Opal L. Brown, a resident of Southeast Washington. She confirmed the Metro account in a Facebook post early Wednesday morning, after news broke that police were looking for her. Brown also told why she threw the urine at the driver during interviews with NBC4, which was on the scene when Metro Transit police arrested her Wednesday morning.

In Brown's words: "I had to go to the bathroom real, real, real bad."

"I was provoked. I hate Metro."

"She [the bus driver] said, 'Have a nice day' all sarcastically. She could have been more courteous."

"I've been catching Metro for 35 years. They've never done s--- for me."

"I apologize to my community. I'm sorry y'all, but she had to get it."

This is what Brown wrote on Facebook: "OK YALL KNOW IT WAS ME. . . . I WANT TO APOLOGIZE TO HER BUT METRO OWE ME AND SHR [the driver] WAS BEING VERY RUDE. SO AT 2:40 AM I WALKED UP TO THE POLICE THAT WAS AT BENCO SND CONFESSED TO IT CUZ IT WAS ON MY HEART ALL DAY. BUT ANYWHO TRANSIT CAME. AND THEY WERE REALLY COOL I ALMOST FELT LIKE A CELEBRITY. IT TOOK ALL OF 20 MINUTES JUST GOTTA GO TO COURT FOR THE SIMPLE ASULT."

According to documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's office charging Brown with assault, Brown told Metro Transit Police when she turned herself in on Wednesday that she had come "to meet with the press" and stated that "she was in possession of an 'apology letter' she wanted to have read to the press."

Brown has taken an act of malice on a flight into fantasy. She's no celebrity. Not the put-upon victim of a disrespectful Metro system.

Her act was unspeakable and she should and will be held accountable. She's been charged with assault and released on personal recognizance pending a status hearing later this month. Meanwhile, she is under court order to stay away from the bus driver and the Metrobus line she was riding. Brown also has been ordered to undergo weekly drug testing, and, most importantly, "report to the Court's Mental Health Urgent Care Clinic for an assessment."

Several reader comments on news stories about this incident begin and end with deriding Brown, with little regard for how this gross event came about. How did this woman, described as the mother of three and grandmother of one, a graduate — like me — of Dunbar High School, reach a stage in life where she would wittingly carry out, and attempt to justify, such a disgusting act?

The bus driver apparently wasn't physically injured in the assault, although she went to a hospital for "decontamination," according to Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly.

But there are injuries.

Beginning with Opal Brown. A fractured soul who crossed a threshold into a mean and dark place. But how far does the damage go? To those who live with her, were raised and taught by her?

This is neither the time nor place for armchair psychology or to pontificate about perfect strangers.

But it is the moment to ask how something like this — the onset of an urgent need to urinate — could go so horribly, gut-wrenchingly and societally wrong, right here, right now, in our midst.

This event doesn't measure up to Hurricane Harvey or Charlottesville's storm troopers. There are more horrible tragedies and political crises, and human failings on a bigger scale, to ponder. But I can't look past this small, human disaster close at hand.

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