Sunday, January 2, 2011

Only When It Affects Them

Cindy Kilkenny gets on her soapbox, taking her righteous indignation out on me. My trespass was that I was not thoroughly shocked enough by a couple of pictures of the aftermath of whatever happened at Mayfair Mall Sunday evening.

The thing that Cindy apparently does not understand is that this sort of thing is, most unfortunately, not all that uncommon in the poorer parts of the city. However, because it is so commonplace, it barely makes the news anymore, unless it is somehow extraordinarily sensational.

The local paper no longer covers every mugging in the inner city. They don't mention when a corner store on the corner of 27th and Vliet St has an unruly customer causing mayhem. They don't report every beating, every bit of vandalism or any other "petty crime" which happens in the poorer areas of our community. Heck, I personally doubt that even most of them get reported to the police anymore.

The most one might find in print or on the Internet would be the police blotters of the CommunityNOW subsidiary of the Journal Company, and even then, they are in no way comprehensive of all the crimes that occur.

So, no, I can't find myself working up any outrage because some clothes got knocked down at a suburban mall. Do I approve of it? Of course not. That type of behavior is inappropriate whether it be at the mall, a Walmart or at the corner store in the inner city.

If I were to be incensed about anything, it would be that it only became an issue for some people when it started to impact them more directly, by happening at a place they might patronize. Where were they when this stuff was already happening in the inner city or other places of our community?

Or I could be become angry about the fact that this is just gaining their attention while this sort of bad behavior has become so commonplace in some areas that people just shrug it off as being part of life, when it really ought not to be.

Another thing that I could easily become outraged at is the automatic, thinly veiled racist comments that already one of Cindy's commenters has left at the time of this posting.

That whole attitude of racism, whether it is by choice or some subconscious part of their upbringing, the whole laissez faire mentality when it doesn't directly impact them, or whatever their motivation might be, does nothing to stop these problems, but actually enables them to fester.

The irony of it all is that I, being portrayed as the Every Liberal, is being chastised for not being duly upset when this has happened to them. However, they were not upset, or sometimes, even aware, that this was occurring elsewhere.

7 comments:

  1. JSOnline yanked the entire comment thread on they're (that was for Jodster) story as it became a cesspool of vile racist crap. They really need to do something about there (Jodster again) comment policy.

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  2. Odd that Cindy got so upset over you're (if I may Jim...that was for Jodster too) reaction. Strange how every emotion you have represents an entire political ideology to her. I mean...if she wants to play it that way...I have an entirely different POV of this situation...so why doesn't she use my POV instead of your's? It may not fit into her wanting to demonize all liberals though.

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  3. "tonight is the tip of the iceberg".
    Kilkenny

    "Bye bye Mayfair."
    Glenn D. Frankovis

    "The sky is falling!"
    Chicken Little

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  4. If 100 kids went on a rampage anywhere in the country, it would be news.
    Yes, they knocked down a few things, but that is the least of Mayfair's problems. It's the scaring of the customers that is the problem.
    I grew up going to Mayfair, well before they had their first tower. They didn't even have security back then.
    Mayfair better get their act together or it will cease to exist.

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  5. "Do you still argue the youth behavior at Mayfair is my fault?"
    Kilkenny

    I suppose this was inevitable. If you have an ego the size of Montana you'd naturally position yourself at the center of this issue. Now it's all about the victimization of Cindy Kilkenny. Grow up, Cindy.

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  6. Mayfair Mall to expand parental guidance policy...

    http://www.jsonline.com/business/112866009.html

    Yep I would say this little act of civil disobedience worked out real well for the kids...

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  7. Michael-

    Yet that will do nothing to solve the problem.

    ReplyDelete