San Jose City Living

I recently read the blog post of a local writer and blogger named Tricia Chambers.  In her post, titled Small-minded Like Me, Tricia does a great job of interrupting the single track mind of human behavior and injecting a sort of, “HEY YOU! DO YOU SEE THIS?” interruption.

Referencing an Austrian woman that was kept in her basement and abused by her father for 30 years, I was snapped into attention, ready to take action at such an atrocity.  “Nobody stepped in to help her,” typed Tricia.

“We are too busy to concern ourselves with someone else’s problems. We are warm and cozy and all is right with the world.”

So true.  But there isn’t a way to know of every atrocity as they happen and have an active way to keep them from happening.  Does the movie Minority Report starring Scientology buff, Tom Cruise ring any bells?

While I still get harshly offended by the slow driver in front of me and the jack-ass on his cell phone boxing me in, not noticing my turn signal and dire plight of driving so slow.  I do think that I take a valiant effort to being kind and understanding to my fellow human.

If I see a guy that has parked downtown, and it’s obvious while he stands at the meter, he doesn’t have any change.  I don’t hesitate to offer the couple of quarters I have snuggled in my pocket.  But what is it about human nature that is too single-minded to notice or take action against the injustices in the world?

My thoughts are that our animal instincts and primitive minds are at fault.  We don’t have hive minds where we can sense bad things happening (or do we?).  Does a bear in the forest worry that his fellow bear, 100 miles away was killed by a hunter?  Obviously not, right?  Humans are no different.  Out of sight, out of mind ring any bells?

My thought is that the best we can do is work with the information we have.  It’s impossible to know that a woman is locked in her basement against her will.  But what we can do is take active steps towards being kind to those around us and be a little less judgmental.  Not direct enough of a solution?  OK, lets have a weekly inspection of basements, run by the government, and include random drug tests during inspection.  THAT’S THE ANSWER!  Or not.  Anyways…

No one is perfect.  I’m not saying I won’t still be frustrated at the sl0w-mo and jack-ass boxing me in.  But I do feel that if we remain aware of the terrible things that can happen in conjunction with the many good things, we’ll be taking active steps towards evolving beyond senseless violence.  I’d like to think that we’re moving towards a society that doesn’t have the evil desires to torture and do wrong.  Don’t you?

So when is the last time you did something nice for someone else?  Have you gone out of your way to ensure someone’s happiness for the day?  Did you tell your loved one you appreciate them today?  I know I did.

Keep positive and DO GOOD WILL YA?

Andrew out!

Kids Need Options is the title of Joseph Di Salvo’s recent article on the San Jose Inside website.

Mr. Di Salvo wrote about how there is a rising gang-related violence in the suburbs of San Jose.  Basically as he talked about the rise in crime he also talked about how “kids need options” and that the typical intervention programs don’t seem to “do the trick” and are more costly than prevention methods.

Long story short he wanted to hear the readers views on alternatives for kids.  My reaction wasn’t really an alternative for kids, it was an alternative to the parents!  Responsibility has to be put back on the parents.  And here is where I sort of got aggressive with it.  Here was my response in full:

“Is it too much to say there should be some sort of limits to how many babies we can have?

Maybe throw an income factor into the mix?  A credit report maybe?  If you can’t afford them, don’t have them maybe?  Just a thought as I see fellow young adults with no college degree, no jobs but a boyfriend making less than 30k a year and living with parents, popping out kids like its required of them.

And what about teaching these kids some self control?  IT IS OK TO SAY, “hang on babe, I need to put the condom on”.  Why not make that a cool thing to do!

I mean heck, if we can make cigarettes look like a swell idea, we should have the talent and skill to make wrapping it up “cool”.

On another note relating to over population, we are currently taking up WAY too much of the natural habitats of animals in order to make more room for us.  This is also ever more relevant in some parts of Africa.  Maybe the guilt of taking their land and stressing their survivial might encourage us to stop making so many kids that are practically doomed to fail from the get go.” <- I recently watched the animal planet…

So tell me, what do you think about my reaction?  Valid? Too much to ask?  Isn’t there some sort of medium we can reach in concerns to the over growth of the population?

As I visit one of my favorite hiking spots, Castle Rock, up HWY 9, I look down at the city in sheer disgust.  Though I love San Jose, it truly just looks like we’re this destructive fungus that infects an area, kills the foliage, and just takes over without much thought to the effect we have on our surroundings.

Keep in mind, I feel the child limit ban that is in effect in China is a bit much and a weak, unplanned preventative measure, but there has to be a compromise in the middle right?

So tell me your thoughts on my response to Joseph’s solution plea.

You can read Joseph’s article directly at http://www.sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/entries/kids_need_options/.