posted January 23, 2009 09:27 PM            

I know it's irritating when someone lets their dog crap on a sidewalk or other area with a lot of pedestrian traffic (enough that if I ever sat on a jury of someone charged with assault for rubbing someone's face in the dog crap they left uncleaned after their dog just dumped it, I'd say "not guilty"), there CAN be moments of satisfaction. Like one house not far from me used to let their dog out to crap in the yard, which would've been ok, IMO (as long as it was their yard), but part of it was on a hill, and when the dog crapped there, it would roll down onto the sidewalk. I saw this happen, too. After a couple of weeks of this, I took to picking it up with a plastic sack and dumping it outside their door for them to step in. I suppose I broke a law in doing so, but I wasn't caught, and in any case, they stopped that habit.

Even when you can't find the guilty party (or you know it was a wild animal, or someone's dog got loose accidentally, etc, so that it's no one's laziness at fault), it's still more annoying still to step in it. Just because you avoid it this time doesn't mean you will the next.

Glass is worse. Not only for those of us on bikes, but kids on skateboards, and animals that walk over it (some of them licking the glass off their paws). And it's ugly. (At least to me, but then I can't stand the sound of breaking glass, but others obviously LOVE the sound of it, so maybe they love the sight of it, too.)

And I could go on (like when I hammered down a nail at the gazebo at the park so that no one would cut themselves or their clothes on it). But thing is, I just had to clean up more dog crap a few blocks away. I didn't even vote for Obama. Where the hell are all the Obama voters and RATties (RAT = "Renew America Today")? Are the lot of them so conditioned to obedience, and so alien to individual initiative, that they can only volunteer if someone tells them exactly what to do? Are they human, or are they just a biological robot that are unable to think for themselves?

Just to be clear, I think conservatives calling RAT a Communist program are being ridiculous. I'm all for it (as long as it's voluntary). But jeez, would it kill those who love this "new age" to help take care of their own neighborhoods so that I'm not the only one doing it in my area?

posted January 24, 2009 05:48 AM            

I kid you not, I've seen kids climbing trees and doing tricks on skateboards over jagged broken glass, and the mothers out there (it's an apartment complex) were too lazy to pick it up. I've politely asked before why they let stuff like that sit out there, and they said something along the lines of it being someone else's responsibility. I suppose that whomever they think responsible will be sued should their kids need to have glass removed and a shot after one fell out of the tree or off a skateboard onto it.

The dog crap I cleaned up has been there for nearly a week. It's right by a Catholic church, and they had their clean up crew out there a day or so ago and they didn't get it, apparently because it was "a foot beyond our property, so not our problem." After I passed it today, I finally went back (after getting home to get a sack) and went back to take care of it, with the memory of those commercials about volunteering fresh in my mind and knowing so many in this neighborhood being excited over him and his message of getting involved (including volunteering).

Just how much brains does it take to realize dog crap isn't good? And that broken glass needs to be taken care of, especially if your kids are playing out in it? If they won't even clean that up, what WOULD they clean up? Why are they waxing over the message of volunteering while leaving this stuff alone?

I don't see why people need a leader to tell them to do it. Presumably they'll volunteer at a soup kitchen because they can show up and do assignments, but they can't think for themselves, so without someone ordering them to "clean that up," they simply don't have the ability to do it. Perhaps they never learned how to act on their own. Or perhaps my initiative & ability to act without a leader telling me what to do is a rare talent (though I sure hope not).

And this is a highly populated area where a lot of people move into and out of, so I guess it's to be expected.

posted January 24, 2009 07:33 AM            

Perhaps, in your situation you described, change your notion of cleaning dogs poop and leave it to nature. Perhaps it will rain and clean away the poop or perhaps the suns light will pulverise it. Regarding broken glass, if your children gets hit then deal with it then. They will learn by experience that it pains and they will be careful. Deal with things as they happen never losing your bearings. Ofcourse you should be aware and responsible and make sure you don't do the same things your neighbor does.

posted January 25, 2009 07:57 PM            

quote:

---

but they can't think for themselves, so without someone ordering them to "clean that up," they simply don't have the ability to do it. Perhaps they never learned how to act on their own. Or perhaps my initiative & ability to act without a leader telling me what to do is a rare talent (though I sure hope not).

---

posted January 31, 2009 09:17 PM            

So just before I swept it up this Saturday afternoon, I taped my first sign to the street light a few feet (about a meter or so) away from where I did my chore. It was a piece of notebook paper with it written in a style so that it could easily be read by anyone interested without having to continually adjust one's position (I DO want it read, after all), which pretty much used it all (I did cut off the parts I didn't write on, leaving enough to tape it there). I'll see how long it lasts.

It said:

[u]ANOTHER[/u]
Clean Up
by
One Who Thinks
OBAMA
is
OVERRATED
&
Has Volunteered
to help
Before I even heard
of him
&
Before the passing fad
of volunteer talk started
but STILL refusing
to lift a finger
as this neighborhood
falls into ruin
[u]PS[/u]
There is no profanity
or partisan politics here
only truth
If you can't clean up
BROKEN GLASS
then DON'T bother
to "clean up"
this street light
by removing this
open letter
& the ones to follow
TY

posted February 03, 2009 09:16 PM            

But as of a few minutes ago when I passed it, it was gone. Whether it was the same people who also busted glass there on BOTH street AND sidewalk, or someone who figured that my letter only encouraged that kind of acting out, I don't know.

I keep forgetting that there are more gremlins than there are helpful people living out here.

Officially, I'm gonna give the faddish volunteers a week before I dismiss the lot of them as hypocrites, but the truth is I already have. If they were REALLY the kind to help, they wouldn't have waited for Obama to show up preaching it before they gave lip service to it, too. Ultimately, it's no different than how so many in the East Texas Bible Belt made such noise about loving their neighbors while spreading hurtful lies, snubbing them, and at times even getting violent against someone for being different. So it is with those having their Obasms right now.

Heck, even Obama is a major hypocrite. I don't mean liar, either, but hypocrite. Example:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-wpxs1Re-8vx2Zk5xnYygW1W67w

quote:

---

Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

---

and
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-na-dc-snow28-2009jan29,0,5924736.story

quote:

---

"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy, very quickly?" Obama asked at the White House on Wednesday. "My children's school was canceled today because of what, some ice?"

As reporters and business leaders laughed, Obama added: "As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled. In fact, my 7-year-old [Sasha] pointed out that you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. . . . You wouldn't even stay indoors. So it's -- I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."

---

Now compare his high minded rhetoric with his actions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29whitehouse.html?_r=2

quote:

---

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

---

(Those feeling the instinctive need to say this is a smear should look at it, because the report is another Obasm, rather than pointing out his own hypocrisy. I picked up the hypocrisy because unlike most people, I have a functioning memory that keeps this stuff in mind, rather than the paper screaming it. Oh, no, they're too busy slamming the celebrities that aren't showing their own Obasms.)

If this is the kind of behavior that people find inspiring, why should I expect any better from them? If anything, they'll be even worse.

No, there is no hope there. And as for change, as they say, the more things change...

Anyway, I'm resolving to NOT clean up the glass, or anything else, but instead in trying to get out of this neighborhood and let it go to hell, as it's the will of the people that it does so. I've always been curious as to how much my cleaning things up was a manifestation of OC behavior (perhaps my trying to keep some order in the chaos of my life), and I guess now I'll find out as I repress the urge to volunteer anymore. I'll still be better than those having Obasms, because I won't be pretending to do otherwise.

posted February 05, 2009 12:54 AM            

No. Not everyone and certainly not enough of us.

It isn't so much being told exactly what to do and how to do it as it is the willingness to actually follow through with doing anything. I can't blame Obama or Bush or any one political figure for that, though.

Instead I'll just blame the helicopter parents coupled with a general social failure regarding personal responsibility. And TV. Can't forget TV.