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| Why can't people just be nice?
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And this is a serious question! What is it about certain people that makes them criminal / anti-social / different to other people?
This has really been prompted by a look at my own community in the past few days. My boyfriend and are looking to move away from where we live in the next 2 years, when we've saved enough money to get a house somewhere nicer and quieter. Recently, a study showed our city to be one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in the UK. I feel safe around where I live, but the city centre is horrible and filled with the strangest people!
I've been accused of being a snob and of being intolerant - usually by my Mother - but I just don't understand what it is that makes people different in this sense. For example, I go into town and I do whatever business I have to do there without bothering anyone else. But then I see a lot of kids - not always specifically kids actually, sometimes 20 or 30 somethings - hanging around, looking menacing, shouting abuse at passers by, spitting on the ground, swearing, drinking etc. They're not always male either, women do it too and for some reason that seems even worse! The thing that gets me the most is when underage kids ask you to go in the shop for them to buy them cigarettes or booze. I would like to know which adult would be irresponsible and stupid enough to give in to this request?! People are far too threatened by kids - they should stand up for themselves and say no to them - they're kids at the end of the day!!!
The problem is that these kids are probably brought up in homes where their parent/s are too busy worrying about themselves! I see these people around too, mothers who have a load of kids with them and they're screaming obscenities at them in the street, dragging them around. Admittedly their children are often disgracefully badly behaved, but how are they going to learn to be good, decent citizens with these people for role models??? And where are the parents when I see the kids - aged as young as 6 or 7 - hanging around the streets, swearing at adults and damaging public and private property?
I know that people are going to say that these kids are a product of their environment and the reason they become anti-social/criminal adults is because that's all they know. What I want to know is what we as a society can do to reverse this cycle of behaviour? The government seems to be throwing public funds the wrong way - giving money for fun activities to kids with ASBOs - when they actually should be being punished and then rehabilitated. It is illegal to smack your children in this country. I was smacked - and I clearly accept there is a huge difference between smacking a child on the back of the legs if they're naughty and beating it senseless - and it did me good! In all honesty, and knowing mine and my partner's values, I'm sure we'll probably smack our kids if they misbehave! It taught me that I was just a child and I was not the boss! I was supposed to do as I was told until I was an adult and hopefully by then I'd have learned how to be a productive member of society! When I was a kid I would never have disrespected an adult - especially not just any old stranger! I was far too terrified of getting in trouble! Kids now falsely accuse teachers of things because 'they know their rights'. When the hell did kids start having rights and knowing that they can accuse people of things? More often than not, these kids are put up to these kind of things by corrupt parents who are probably living on benefits because they can't be bothered to work who are just after the compensation money that they think people will give them! But if the cycle of criminality begins when a child is 6 or 7 how can we expect them to be normal, functioning, pleasant adults?
I think the main problem in our communities is that people just don't have respect for where they live and the other members of their community. For example, near where I live the council has just repainted a decommissioned old train that is now by the side of the road for ornamental purposes. And it looked great, really brightened up a dull grey road and gave people an insight into our industrial heritage, being an old port town with a history of heavy industry. A few days after it had been painted, some moron came along and tagged every single side of it with blue spray paint. Not even anything decorative - just tagged it. What would make a person so thoughtless and stupid? And it's not even as if there would be any point removing it - it would only be damaged again! But then should we admit defeat? Should we all stop trying to make our community better because of the portion of society that seek to ruin it for everyone else? That's where everything starts to go downhill, when we lose sight of the common values of good and that's what I'm seriously worried is going to happen in this country.
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Posted by Smoosh on 2007-07-27 01:21:38 | Rating: | Views: 99
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