This reminds me of an experience I had back in my Freshman year of high school. So back in.. 1989/1990 we were all forced to take a "community service" course, and part of that was to be bussed out to the ghetto to clean up and beautify a field.
This former baseball field was littered with garbage, tires, an abandoned car, shopping carts... you name it it was littered everywhere. We arrived about 7:30 A.M. and spent about two hours every day cleaning it up. After a couple days it was all cleaned so we laid down some grass and planted some flowers and what not.
It all seems fine and dandy and we actually felt great about ourselves by helping to beautify this neighborhood and doing a good deed, but something just seemed a bit odd.... even though this was a mostly residential area there were no other people around. It was like a ghost town.
On Friday, our last day there we ended up having to stay late to finish things up. After about 11:30-12:00 we started seeing people come out of their homes and walk around the neighborhood. After a short while a rather large group of 25 or so people had gathered behind the wire fence that wrapped around what at one time was home plate and they started commenting on how great the lot looked.
We were all patting ourselves on the backs for doing the right thing while sweating our ASSES off doing all this hard labor while the entire neighborhood was just standing there watching. Granted, there were no problems with them.. they were mostly polite and supportive and we were all thankful for the support and feeling good about ourselves but on the bus ride back to the school that afternoon it occurred to me... THOSE PEOPLE STOOD THERE FOR TWO HOURS AND NEVER ONCE DID THEY WALK AROUND TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE AND OFFER TO HELP!
Then it also occurred to me that if they actually DID want to make a difference and act like they are extended families or living in a "village" then the lot would never have been allowed to get in that condition in the first place. That's what makes this statement TOTAL BULLSHIT above anything else.
If they could reliably support each other or properly care for one another than all the good protesters would band against the violent ones and the looters and STOP THAT BEHAVIOR. Sure, some are coming out and publicly condemning it and I applaud that behavior but the vast majority of them are either standing back and filming it all, or even falling for the trap and joining in!
People like to complain about how bad impoverished communities have it, and how poorly they are treated, and how they have no chance of getting ahead... and don't fool yourselves this isn't a racial thing - there are plenty of poor white communities in rural areas that face similar struggles, but UNTIL THESE PEOPLE LEARN TO HELP AND SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER, THEN THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO SIGNIFICANTLY HELP.
Oh and as far as that lot goes, the very next year they required the Freshmen to all take the same "community service" class, and guess what lot they went to go clean up - yup the SAME EXACT ONE. In less than a year it was back to the same condition it was when we first found it.
This reminds me of an experience I had back in my Freshman year of high school. So back in.. 1989/1990 we were all forced to take a "community service" course, and part of that was to be bussed out to the ghetto to clean up and beautify a field.
This former baseball field was littered with garbage, tires, an abandoned car, shopping carts... you name it it was littered everywhere. We arrived about 7:30 A.M. and spent about two hours every day cleaning it up. After a couple days it was all cleaned so we laid down some grass and planted some flowers and what not.
It all seems fine and dandy and we actually felt great about ourselves by helping to beautify this neighborhood and doing a good deed, but something just seemed a bit odd.... even though this was a mostly residential area there were no other people around. It was like a ghost town.
On Friday, our last day there we ended up having to stay late to finish things up. After about 11:30-12:00 we started seeing people come out of their homes and walk around the neighborhood. After a short while a rather large group of 25 or so people had gathered behind the wire fence that wrapped around what at one time was home plate and they started commenting on how great the lot looked.
We were all patting ourselves on the backs for doing the right thing while sweating our ASSES off doing all this hard labor while the entire neighborhood was just standing there watching. Granted, there were no problems with them.. they were mostly polite and supportive and we were all thankful for the support and feeling good about ourselves but on the bus ride back to the school that afternoon it occurred to me... THOSE PEOPLE STOOD THERE FOR TWO HOURS AND NEVER ONCE DID THEY WALK AROUND TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE AND OFFER TO HELP!
Then it also occurred to me that if they actually DID want to make a difference and act like they are extended families or living in a "village" then the lot would never have been allowed to get in that condition in the first place. That's what makes this statement TOTAL BULLSHIT above anything else.
If they could reliably support each other or properly care for one another than all the good protesters would band against the violent ones and the looters and STOP THAT BEHAVIOR. Sure, some are coming out and publicly condemning it and I applaud that behavior but the vast majority of them are either standing back and filming it all, or even falling for the trap and joining in!
People like to complain about how bad impoverished communities have it, and how poorly they are treated, and how they have no chance of getting ahead... and don't fool yourselves this isn't a racial thing - there are plenty of poor white communities in rural areas that face similar struggles, but UNTIL THESE PEOPLE LEARN TO HELP AND SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER, THEN THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO SIGNIFICANTLY HELP.
Oh and as far as that lot goes, the very next year they required the Freshmen to all take the same "community service" class, and guess what lot they went to go clean up - yup the SAME EXACT ONE. In less than a year it was back to the same condition it was when we first found it.