Anyway, another cool thing about the ghetto is that most of the time I am more afraid of and intimidated by children than I am of adults. Sure, drug dealers and gang bangers are kind of frightening, but they don't really come around our street much and even when they do, they don't want anything to do with me. I don't have anything nice and I don't have any business for them, so who cares? Kids, though, are another monster all together. Kids in the ghetto have no rules. They are completely unsupervised. They essentially run amok at all hours of the day, causing trouble and making noise. I don't even think that most of them have parents. One specific example of this is a little a-hole that lives on a side street next to our house. I estimate his age at around 7-8 years old. He has a Kenny Wayne Sheppard haircut and likes to scowl at cars as they drive by. He literally thinks he is the coolest person in the entire world, and he wants you to be afraid of him. This is Kenny Wayne Sheppard, by the way.
Along with scowling at people as they drive by and making fun of other neighborhood kids, this little d-bag and his buddies like to play in the street and not move when the cars come, almost like they are saying 'Screw you, motorist, I'll move on my terms. What are you gonna do? Run me over?' They play aggressive, loud games and often times like to throw hard objects at one another from across the street. They have even set up a rope swing that goes all the way from one side to the other. There is really no point to this other than to bee in other people's way. It's not like they are landing in a lake. It is the ghetto. It's all concrete.Last night I went out on my porch to get a bit of air before I went to bed. It was around 10:30, just after It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ended. I hear some kids yelling and I look over to see this little Denis the Menace jerk and one of his friends running through one of our neighbor's back yards carrying paint ball guns. Are you serious? I had to be in bed by 9:30 until I was like 16. And I sure as hell wasn't allowed to have a paintball gun. Even if I was, I wouldn't have been allowed to randomly run through a neighborhood shooting at stuff in the middle of the night. Do these kids even have parents?
Now, I'm not saying that I am intimidated by the kids because I am afraid of them. Obviously I could handle this 7-year-old if he decided to confront me. The problem is, I am not allowed to. It's not like I am going to go over there and kick his ass, and I am sure if I ever threatened the little shit his stupid parents would surface out of the woodwork and confront me. Not to mention, I am not keen on getting in to confrontations with Av around. All I am going to say is that he had better hope I never catch him trying to break in to my car or vandalizing anything that I own, because all bets are off if that happens.
Essentially, I have pretty much had it with the ghetto. It is too loud and no one supervises their kids. I have no desire to raise Av in this environment and I sure as hell don't want her associating with any of those little punks. You know what the worst part is? If this stupid kid ever gets hit by a car because he was running around the neighborhood being a dick at 10:30 p.m. that driver is going to lose his license and that kid is going to be painted as a victim. Just like the girl in Marblehead who got hit by a car and killed when she wandered out in to the road on her cell phone not paying attention. Then she dropped the phone in the middle of the road and someone hit her. That driver was going 20 mph and wasn't on his phone, yet he is vilified. The cops cleared him of wrong doing but the community fired nothing but backlash at he and his family. As if having to live with that wasn't bad enough. Now everyone has 'Slow Down for Allie' stickers on their cars, even though the accident was caused by the pedestrian not paying attention and the driver was not distracted or speeding.
I think this is my larger point. Motorists are held to a very high standard of safety, as they should be, but no one ever gets on pedestrians for being irresponsible. I am terrified when I drive through downtown Salem every day because people just wander in to the road and assume you will stop. Just because there is a crosswalk there doesn't mean that you can cross whenever you want. Especially if there is a green light. Use common sense. If there are 15 cars sitting in traffic and the light turns green you have to wait. Don't even get me started on people who ride bikes, either. Hey Lance Armstrong, you're not in a car, get out of the middle of the road. And unless you're in a race, lose the spandex.
I'm not sure how we got here. Let's backtrack. To sum up, kids in the ghetto are unruly and unsupervised and it is intimidating. Also, as soon as Av is old enough to understand, I am going to teach her the real safe way to cross a street. As in, don't assume someone is going to stop because they may not see you. And texting while walking can be just as dangerous as texting while driving. The End.
The new blog is up.
If you are interested in reading my opinions on sports, music TV, movies and pretty much anything that doesn't involve my kid or my family life, check out blogdump1.blogspot.com. It is a bit more abstract, a bit more fun and a bit more vulgar. It should also effectively prevent those of you who don't care about that crap from being distracted while trying to read about Av. Enjoy.
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