Tales From The Southside...
Yes, friends...time once again for more of the impossible, the improbable, and utterly inept. So pour another cup, sit back and let me take the wheel for a few miles. I promise it won't ALL be rough road.
--The 40th TRF ends in brawling.
Curiously, the only place I saw mention of this was on the TV news.
Apparently, scores of teens saw fit to end the "festivities" of our Three Rivers Festival by running through the throngs of people exiting, shoving them and their children to the ground.
This is called fun.
NOT!
Here's the link to WANE:
http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=8711610&nav=menu32_2

No reason was given for the display of "youthful exuberance" by these mini-thugs, but since the FWPD had plenty of officers THERE (and not in my area of course), they employed a taser and pepper spray, arresting 8 of these teens in the process. Now forgive me if my eyes deceived me, but it sure looked like a lot of black teens were involved. I somehow cannot imagine a bunch of Aboite teenagers taking to pushing people to the ground for no reason other then they CAN. The display of these kids looked a lot more like TNB to me.
Ah yes...flexing their adolescent "muscle" and sending notice to the city..."We are not going away, so get ready for all out war in a few years".
Yeah, that sounds the message they wanted to send. Must be some truth to the latest study regarding genetic preponderance for violence coupled with failed family lives.
--Another story that didn't make the printed page was this meeting downtown with city council members and law-enforcement over the violence in our city. Tim Didier stood before the cameras, but that was about IT.
At least WPTA had this story:
((FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's News Center)---A community meeting was held on Monday evening to address long standing criminal activities in and around Fort Wayne's 3rd District.
City Council member Tom Didier (R) 3rd District hosted the meeting inviting residents from his district along with Chief Rusty York of the Fort Wayne Police Department.
The meeting was an open forum where residents were able to ask questions, voice their opinions, and find solutions to some of the problems they may have come across or encounter.
Representatives from the Police Department admit that the biggest criminal activity in North West Fort Wayne is theft.
Said Chief Rusty York, " Where the North West area might not have a lot of violent crime, I think as far as property crime theft of vehicles, they're probably the higher end of the spectrum throughout the city because they have so much retail."
Tom Didier's goal for the meeting was to make sure that residents in his district were aware. People who attended the meeting were able to learn what to look out for to keep their neighborhoods safe.))
Yeah, Rusty...we USED to have such retail DOWN HERE, but CRIME drove it away.
Wow...Amazing how people in the NW area are concerned with THEFT, while we on the SE side wallow in a lot more VIOLENT CRIME, such as MURDER.
Where are OUR councilmen ...on vacation?
Oh, BTW, I already DO my part in working with the FWPD (as do people like Phil Marx), and we're still waiting for that "change for the BETTER", thanks to OUR constant and timely assistance. But several people cannot do it all by themselves.
We are simply outnumbered.
Helluva way to live, right?
--A firefighter outside of St. Louis was shot and killed when he arrived in scene to put out a house fire. I suppose in such areas we'll be needing to send in SWAT first to assess the situation, establish a workable security perimeter so the firefighters can THEN attempt to put of a fire. We just had a fireman and newscamerman in Indy shot with a pellet gun last week. WTF is going on?
Again, a helluva way to live, right?
And a brand new study says that "my" generation (baby boomers) is becoming a generation of WHINERS.
(ahem)
Excuse me, but we have EARNED the right to bitch, piss, moan, gripe and otherwise become the curmudgeons that subsequent generations have created by screwing the hell out of everything we hoped to pass on with a level of legacy to our kids.
Granted, there were a lot of my generation that dropped the ball, but many others have planned for their futures, only to see their hopes dashed to the ground by mismanagement, economic upheavals, resource depletion, burgeoning crime waves, and the like.
And, if I remember correctly, the "squeaky wheel gets the oil", and if you want to call it whining, fine. At least it's a helluva lot better than the APATHY we see around us today, isn't it? Better to gripe someone into action than to sit around on your ass doing nothing. Just don't bitch at US when we decide to take action ourselves when everyone else can't be bothered.
One good thing is that many of our grandparents aren't alive to see how mucked up all this turned out. Perhaps if they were still around, they'd be doing even MORE "whining" than we are alleged to be doing. So, if whining means pointing out the OBVIOUS to those without CLUE ONE...fine by me.
Maybe my generation was just supposed to roll over, drop dead and let everything just ride along to hell all on it's own. I'd like to think we're a bit better than that, generationally-speaking.
Until things become more in tune with what we would expect from something we called PROGRESS, be it socially, technologically, ethically, morally, or even philosophically, we will continue to rant, rave and effect whatever changes we can for the betterment of all, and the preservation of what we were brought up to believe America was all about.
Or we could sit on our porch, suck down some lemonade, and get a duet going with Mr. Banjo Squirrel here.
So there...take THAT, you researching study-maker people, you from the PEW organization.
(LOL...named pew...as in it stinks?)
Makes me wonder who studies the people that make up these studies.
Should be some serious GRANT MONEY in something like that, eh?
Can I get an "Amen" from the people?