08 May 2008

Every Morning Starts Out Well...
Doesn't matter what season it is,or where you happen to live,but each morning always has the "potential" for being a nice day (yeah, even when it's raining). Now that might sound a tad flowery, especially coming from ME, and yet, I do manage to want to believe that things will somehow revert back to a level of normalcy I USED to remember.
Then that reality sets in...I'm in Fort Wayne, Indiana aka Bizarro World, and it's then I have to rethink my methodology as to how I will "handle" whatever comes down the pike.
And rest assured, it WILL be coming.
Semper Paratus!
With that said, and with my psyche now fortified against the day's vicissitudes, let's ponder some of life's "other" problems.
~Gas Prices Continue to Rise, But-
Kinda like a runaway yeast factory, huh? Well, we've been down this particular "IF ONLY" street so many times, it's not even funny, so I won't belabor this moot point...too much more.
CHRYSLER has a novel idea...help those who BUY their vehicles pay for the gas they are using. Considering they are the only one left of the BIG THREE that isn't waist-deep in losses (unlike Ford and GM), they're climbing out on a limb pretty darn far with this one.
Nice to know that MITSUBISHI is footing some of the bill as well.
What?
You didn't know that Chrysler and Mitsubishi were "bed-buddies"?
Where HAVE you been?
Chrysler has been using Mitsubishi parts as far back as the late 1970s (along with some VW and AUDI parts). Remember the Dodge Stealth of the early 1980s? It was the same car as the Mitsubishi 3000 (with minor changes to the sheet metal and logos of course). My buddy once had a 1979 Plymouth Horizon 2+2 hatchback. The whole top of the engine had AUDI logos all over it.
Still, paying drivers to BUY a Chrysler product is slick. And that explains why so many blacks in MY area suddenly are driving Chrysler products. And here I though they were GIVING THEM AWAY to anyone with a a WIC card (and a good "po-me" story)...silly me.
~Philly Cops Caught Kicking Perps -
A news helicopter camera caught three PPD officers kicking and punching three suspects (during a traffic stop) on tape yesterday. The officers were pulled from street duty pending an investigation. The car was pulled over after a triple shooting Monday night. NO weapons were found in the car or on the suspects, but officers stated they had seen them shoot three people on a drug corner (sound familiar Phil?) moments earlier.
Philly officers are already on edge from having one of their own shot and killed just two days prior to Monday's triple shooting.
Personally speaking, I don't find this behavior (too much) out of line with what has transpired in Philly over the past several days. And the LAST thing I would want to do is cheese off a policeman, or be a person the police are looking for after such an occurrence.
When I saw the tape of the officers and the kicking going on, I told my wife that "This is not police brutality...this is what we called a 'tune up', and woe to anyone that is suspect in a police shooting".
When a perp was caught (and fell down a number of times getting him to the "paddy wagon") officers would traditionally take "the scenic route" to the lockup, which meant the one in custody was not cuffed to the rail inside the van, and the driver would find some of the roughest roads to travel, bouncing him around a bit before he arrived to be processed at the "Roundhouse". So compliance in a perp was a given at that point.
The Philly PD looked at it this way: If a person acted like an animal (by committing some heinous crime), that's how he was treated. Officers understood that when a perp takes away an individuals rights, they (the perps) have just abrogated their OWN rights in the process. Still works for me.
~Myanmar death toll exceeds 60,000 -
This makes me wonder how many MORE Burmese Fort Wayne will wind up "hosting" after the dust settles there. Now granted, the Burmese are much "better-behaved" than most of the LOCALS here, and are not on the dole with their hands out for every freebie giveaway like the LOCALS are, but they bring their own "nuances" to the city. They've come here from poverty, and have a tendency to allow trash to pile up, and are not well-versed on how to properly contain such garbage.
It takes a while to assimilate into American culture (unlike the hordes of people living here for generations who refuse to acknowledge the laws). Now this only applies to a small number of Burmese, but fair IS fair. If you're going to live HERE (in America), you've got to get with the program, and if it means bagging your trash and not living in squalor (like in Myanmar) then so be it.
And that providers me with the perfect segue back to THIS morning...and MY neighborhood conditions...
We have families that have lived in America for generations, and STILL maintain that this is a FREE country (which it IS), and by that (to them) it means they are FREE to do WHATEVER THEY WANT (which they cannot).
Sorry to burst that bubble, Moesha, but ALL freedom comes with a PRICE. It might be the soldier giving his/her life overseas, the officer putting his/her life on the line on your street daily, the fire fighter saving children from a burning house, or it might mean you have to follow the LAWS set down by the governments to ensure that EVERYONE is safer, and has an EQUAL opportunity to a good life AND lifestyle (that would be a level of "quiet repose" as stated in our city's ordinances).
That might mean placing YOUR trash IN THE BIN, and not in bags scattered about.
-It might mean reeling in your kids and NOT allowing them to hang on corners or roam about to all hours, raising several types of hell.
-It might mean being a GOOD neighbor, and a HELP to the neighborhood, instead of the HINDRANCE you've been for several years.
-It might mean respecting other PEOPLE and their PROPERTY, and not assuming that THEIR property is YOURS, simply because they live within the same block.
-It might mean not playing your music (?) so loud that it can be heard several blocks away, or leaning on that car horn to get someone to come from their house.
-It might mean penning up that barking dog, or cleaning up after it craps on a neighbor's yard.
-It might mean mowing YOUR lawn once a season, and raking leaves a few times every decade.
-It might mean getting a muffler for that reject POS you're driving.
It can mean a multitude of things, that simply aren't being practiced.
It's not difficult to do, either. It just takes commitment, a little diligence, and some responsibility. THAT is what makes ANY area better for EVERYONE...doesn't matter what the ethnicity, religious convictions, or nationalities might be, either.
Like I said...every morning HAS this potential...when it begins.
A shame some people are too self-effacing to understand something SO easy.
Maybe TOMORROW morning, eh?

4 comments:

Phil Marx said...

Some of the cops here actually have a sense of humor. I have seen them use it do difuse a situation before, and I think it probably let's them release enough pressure that they don't start kicking the crap out of some of the people here.

A couple weeks ago two of the drug dealers here got in a fight in the street in front of my home. The next day I was working out front when one of the passing officers rolled down his window and called out to one of these guys asking him if he was okay. The guy seemed perplexed at the question, then the officer said "Well, we heard you got beat up yesterday and we just wanted to make sure you were okay." Everyone, including his friends and myself, burst out laughing.

There was another time that I said something provacative to an officer here (it was well deserved), and he looked for a moment as though he was going to throw me to the ground. The other officer (who had a drug dealer leaning against my truck and was searching him) made a comment about the guys dirty underwear. This broke the tension a bit.

Bob G. said...

Hey, when you deal with the human flotsam and vermin daily, you LEARN to develop something to relieve the anxiety.
Hours of tedium sprinkled with seconds of extreme tension...

Welcome to the wonderful world of LAW-ENFORCEMENT!
(same goes for combat)

;)

B.G.

Anonymous said...

Let's hope that the "Philly 15" starts a summer tour this year. Would really like them to come to the 5th and 6th Districts of Ft. Wayne.

Bob G. said...

Amen to THAT...!

B.G.