What is it with people who seem to think that everything…EVERYTHING…is theirs to do with as they please? Whatever…whenever…wherever…however they please. How does this get to be a mind-set? This is a vandalism state of mind and it does none of us any good, least of all those who “get away with it” and continue to behave in this fashion. Sooner or later (We should all hope, “sooner”) it catches up with the individuals or the society in which they operate.
Sometimes other, more responsible and caring people—individuals or groups of some sort–will step up to attempt repair and/or improvement but all too often, things simply decline to the loss of us all.
How did I get off on this decline of humanity? The news is always a fertile venue to spot a lot of this stuff –has been lately, anyhow but it just came to me while looking at the flowerbeds/boxes in front of the Y the other day. Those boxes are transitioning from full-flower, blossom-bombs to “Hey the season is over” condition. Somebody decided that they would be entertained by taking apart the little solar-powered mushroom in one corner; so they did, take it apart, that is. What for? Who knows.
Why do people choose to carve their initials on historic landmarks? Or on the sides of boxcars? Or on other people’s cars? Or the front of stores and businesses? Why do they pitch cans, bottles, miscellaneous garbage(the occasional item of –usually dirty–clothing) out of their moving vehicles. Cigarette butts, I figure, get pitched (and probably some of the other stuff too) because the younger vandals are too chicken to go home with the evidence right out there in front of God and everybody. Is this all happening because they think that it is the only way they will ever make a mark on the world? How pitiful is that? Couldn’t they choose a more constructive way to be remembered, for Pete’s sake? (Here we are remembering Saint Peter, and not for scrawling his name on a church wall.)
Sometimes, I am sure, this lowering of standards is simply carelessness, but it could be easily remedied with a little thought and a more enlightened attitude, like what was sometimes seen during the recent Covid 19 ordeal :”We’re all in this together.” Indeed we are.
Please to keep this all in mind as Halloween approaches (as it has been in the stores practically since Fourth of July). You wanna smash pumpkins? Do your own. You want to spray paint something? Do your own garage door/car in the drive/backpack. Do not hide behind the “entertainment” excuse. As soon as the word “just” is dragged into the explanation–”We were just havin’ fun”, “We just thought (?)they wanted it that color”, “We just were in a hurry.”–it is pretty clear that the explainer knew perfectly well that what they did was wrong but they thought(?) they could get away with it.
I just thought that I would bring this up before it starts getting dark any earlier.
