Tag Archives: miscreants

“We Don’t Do That, Here”

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

November 19, 2024- It did not really surprise me, when a driver, headed south, blew through the red light. It did not surprise me, either, later this afternoon, when a self-absorbed young man pushed open the door to the gym and let it fly back. We who were behind him, saw it coming and just hung back a bit.

These were the gadflies, because we don’t customarily act in those manners towards our neighbours, around here. I rather doubt that most people, anywhere, behave in such a fashion, but here we are.

This is a town, though, where cowboys and hippies long ago made peace with each other. Arch-conservatives and progressives gather each Tuesday at noon, on opposite corners of Gurley and Cortez, each posting their respective messages. When it’s all over, the two groups mix together and socialize. A while back, when Red for Ed was a popular phrase used by liberal teachers, a rally was being held at Courthouse Square. A disgruntled reactionary, a lawyer of some repute, decided it’d be worth his while to drive by and yell cuss words at the mothers with children who were standing on the sidewalk. It was not the liberals who taught him right from wrong, but some supporters of then-President Trump who pulled him over. “We don’t do that here!” (He has not been visible at public events since that day.)

This is a town where support for clean air and water, for unadulterated, certified organic food, for natural supplements, is well-nigh universal. There are no questions asked of people who sport t-shirts or bumper stickers with provocative messages, because they don’t challenge those who promote the opposite messages. Live and let live, by and large, is what we do here.

This is, up to now, a town where unhoused people can get healthy meals and are less likely, for the time being, to be forced to sleep outside for lack of shelter. There are some who take issue with that, but for now, harassing the homeless is not something we do here.

This is, up to now, a town where the Master Plan specifically eschews discrimination based on race, national origin, gender, faith, political stance or sexual orientation. One city councilperson would like to see that changed, as that’s not how it is where she’s from. She is hearing, though, that discrimination is not something we do here.

We do civility here.

Streamlined

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 2, 2024- Something to consider: It now takes eight hours, or less, for one bank to transfer funds to another. This has long been a goal, one purpose of which is to minimize the amount of bet hedging by less than responsible customers, who write checks or transfer funds, thinking that “There might be a business day that will pass without sufficient coverage, but surely no bank will be so efficient as to catch on so fast.”

Guess what-Most banks do catch on-and within the aforementioned eight hours. I am glad to have set up a system to meet obligations as they arise, and not expect the institutions to dawdle, and hold off their end of the deal. It’s just nice to actually be able to face lightning-fast challenges, with like response.

Despite the misconception that progressive governments are lenient and inefficient, especially in the face of rapid change, I have noticed that everything from tax returns to the actual arrest and deportation of miscreants who are here under false pretenses is actually being handled in a more streamlined manner. Some of it is moving more slowly than other aspects, but things are moving along. A lot of the COVID-based, supply chain shortage-caused mishandling of people and goods is clearing up.

Then, there are the squatters-who move into another person’s home and cry to sympathetic judges for relief, when they are removed. Recently, a Venezuelan national tried to recruit people from his country to engage in mass squatting, saying that he knew judges who would back him up. He has been arrested in Ohio, on Federal charges, and sits in Geauga County Jail-pending trial in a Federal court, where he does NOT know the judges. Many states are now streamlining their laws, so that police can protect homeowners, even if they are away from the home for as long as six months.

Just because people are kind, nice, considerate does not mean they are disorganized and weak. It’s worth remembering this, in the weeks and months ahead.

Taking Ownership

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 25, 2024- Child # 1 kept denying having broken a health-related rule, even though ten of his classmates testified that he had done so, and the evidence was there, on his desk. He was held to account for the violation. Had he not been, who knows how many copy cats would have followed suit?

I have said it before: I was the world’s worst miscreant, when it came to covering up misdeeds, from childhood to the end of my erring days. I was actually relieved, in later years, when called to account for bad choices. It meant, usually, a chance to start afresh and act more in tune with Divine teachings.

We’ve discussed owning one’s bad choices before, on this site. Families, communities and countries have never been known to thrive, when a key member of the grouping goes from one denial to another. Yet, some believe the denier, largely because they see so many dodging responsibility for their actions. So, “why not give ________the benefit of the doubt?” Well, there is “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” There is also the fact that the individual’s spiritual state does not improve, over time, with the accumulation of “duck, dodge and hide”.

What I’ve found is that I have gotten umpteen chances to overcome a character defect-until the time comes that the baggage is actually cast overboard.

Softening the Rock

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Posted by on in children, Education, Inner Struggles, Poetry

October 26, 2016, Prescott-

Swaggering is a cover for deep-seated fear.

So is fabulism.

Neither gets one the satisfaction

that is offered by trustworthiness.

I read travel tales

of men trying to sweep

attractive women off their feet.

I see people, with faux charm,

trying to fool all the masses,

and the individuals,

all the time.

I hear frightened miscreants

protest their innocence,

when caught in the act.

I witness two forlorn boys,

masking their sorrow

and sense of being abandoned,

by attacking one another.

My task is to flow,

again and again,

wearing down the hardness

of the rock.