A Community's Values
With all the controversy surrounding the Calvin Miller arrest, the community seems to have forgotten a girl was shot about a month ago at the Pointe Apartments in Urbana. I recall her injury was not life threatening, although an inch or two one way or another may have rendered tragically different results. Is she not worthy of compassion and a demand for action against the shooters? Where's the outrage against that shooting?
A friend of my son lived in the Pointe Apartments, and suffered a broken cheek and jaw in an armed burglary. What about the recent mugging and robbery in the Pointe Apartments parking lot? Are these residents not worthy of a vocal and decisive defense? What about the injury suffered by an elderly man in Urbana when he walked into a robbery taking place in his own house? Where's the rage against armed violence against other human beings?
What about the recent armed robbery attempt on Eureka Street in Champaign, where the robbers themselves were shot?
What about the shootings at the Mall? Fortunately, only the perpetrators were injured, although there may have been a hundred people or more within the range of a .38 caliber pistol, any of them potential victims. Where is the rage against these shootings and the gang activity that precipitated the shootings?
What about the muggings and robberies on campus? Aren't students entitled to a safe university environment while they prepare for their futures? Where's the rage against an attitude that someone is entitled to forcibly take property that doesn't belong to them, sometimes at gunpoint or knifepoint, and that UI students are fodder for this dysfunctional behavior?
What about the shootings in Garden Hills a year or so ago, where a crowd gathered to witness that spectacle? What about the witnesses who supposedly saw nothing when interviewed by Police? Aren't Garden Hills residents worthy of safety in their own homes?
What about the two UI students who were hit, and then run over by an automobile. Where's the outrage against this pathetic act of cowardice?
If an objective observer were to assess a community's values based on its expression of discontent, or its silence and tacit approval, they could draw no other conclusion other than shooting people, armed violence, mugging and robbery and overall disregard for civil order and human life are acceptable behaviors, personal accountability for one's actions is discouraged, police actions are unacceptable and rabble and mob rule is the preferred method of civic governance.
Is this the way a community should nurture its values? Is this the way a community should present itself to the city, region, and nation as a whole? I would hope not but, regrettably, some do.
Tell it, brother!
Tell it, brother!
Tom,An excellent piece and
Tom,
An excellent piece and very well done indeed, all are valid questions and observations that speak to a crisis brewing throughout our society – the breakdown in social norms and civility. None of which have anything to do with law enforcement as enforcement rarely if ever prevents crime.
What we have is a desensitizing of violence, wherein vast portions of our young males are avid ultimate fighting fans in combination with violent video games, backed up with Hollywood productions that are predominately gore and violent based entertainment. Individuals who listen constantly to music that is predominantly misogynistic, supported through Lucifeian imagery in music videos.
This culture of violence has now permeated our society to a degree that it now spills over into the public arena. These are hedonistic and narcissistic lifestyles, supported by public welfare dollars that allow for absentee fathers creating extended dysfunctional families, who grow disproportionally in relation to what was once considered the norm.
Combine these factors with a growing divide between the haves and have not’s and you will see a very bleak picture emerging. Wherein vast portions of our youth become a collective in tribal systems we call “gangs” that serve to form an illusionary family group based on violence, thievery and domination, preying on those outside the cloister for sustainability.
People like yourself and others who are productive and respectful citizens, have enough respect for others within our community that we are diligent in avoiding any kind of entanglement with “the law”. However, those who have little to loose and everything to gain by bullying, fighting, stealing and fornicating, see being arrested as just part of the “cost of doing business”. Besides it looks good on your social resume’ that you were arrested, because you’re a cool dude if you do, in “putting it to the man”.
It is an upside down world growing larger each day and until the culture is changed it will only become worse for us all, eventually dragging us down to it’s level as we continue to throw more money at the problem by treating the symptoms through ENFORCEMENT that can never work.
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