Community
A 1.1 million dollar business was being run in my neighborhood.
I had no idea.
Two marijuana grow houses just got raided. One of them several houses down from mine.
And it seems this is a mystery to everyone.
How could this be?
These houses were basically empty, no furniture, no items used for living. All business. Hydroponics, grow lights and of course, plants. Very minimalist.
Now I am not one to cast stones about how another makes a living, nor is this about the social pluses or minuses to marijuana.
This is about community, or more specifically, where community has gone. It is no longer in the subdivisions and neighborhoods. Our cities have become dark alleyways of garage doors that open and shut with bear-trap rapidity. We come home, go about our business and do everything to firmly plant our heads in the sands of our neatly manicured yards. We build 6 foot privacy fences and our houses so that the windows don't face our neighbors houses and all so that we can have the illusion that our homes aren't mere feet apart. And what we lack in actual distance, we make up in social distance.
I couldn't even tell you the names of my neighbors, nor they mine. Especially the ones across the street. I know because in 5 years, I have never spoken with them. Not once. And I am a normally social, gregarious even, person. Why aren't we out talking by the mailboxes and inviting each other over for dinner and having block parties for the kids and getting to know each other? We all run our lives as though the rest of our neighbors don't exist. So I guess it isn't a stretch to understand how it can go unnoticed for so long when your neighbors actually don't exist. When no one is actually living in these grow houses it can so easily escape our attention because we are not caring, paying attention to, or otherwise giving a damn about any of the other actual residents of the other houses, why should we care about the phantom ones?
It is indeed sad that we care so little about where we live.
We placate ourselves with monthy dues to the HOA that we tell ourselves is maintaining our little neck of the woods. But in reality Home Owners Association is the latest-greatest oxymoron. There is no Association in these neighborhoods. If anything, we have purposely built, created, and customized a very efficient Disassociation from one another.
And this is exactly what we deserve.
We completely deserve to have drug dealers use this construct to their advantage.
Yes, we completely deserve it. This is our own fault. We are to blame. This situation is completely of our own doing.
We have fostered the perfect environment to harbor this kind of activity. Thus far we are lucky that these houses have been used for growing pot, which is relatively benign in use, has basically no overdose level, and is as safe as growing tomatoes to produce.
The meth labs in our midst are not so safe. Not only is the drug potent, addictive, and completely destructive, but the places themselves are dangerous. And if 1.1 million dollars worth of pot and guns can remain unnoticed for years, so can they.
Where have our communities gone? We are all turning our backs on each other and forgetting why we built cities in the first place: The simple principle that we are stronger together than we are alone. Yet we do everything in our ability to attenuate that basic tenet by huddling in our own little foxholes day and night. By not getting involved in each other's business. By not knowing each other's names.
We have a choice to make: We can be a community. We can be strong and make our streets safe and know what is happening in OUR neighborhood. Or we can turn our heads. We can live our own little lives and bury our heads in the sand. And in so doing we choose to fall.
The choice is simple.
Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them. Ask them questions. Answer theirs. And in so doing we will mend fences far more effective than the ugly wooden privacy fences in between our property. We will rebuild the community that we have somehow lost. We will find our strength in each other.
I had no idea.
Two marijuana grow houses just got raided. One of them several houses down from mine.
And it seems this is a mystery to everyone.
How could this be?
These houses were basically empty, no furniture, no items used for living. All business. Hydroponics, grow lights and of course, plants. Very minimalist.
Now I am not one to cast stones about how another makes a living, nor is this about the social pluses or minuses to marijuana.
This is about community, or more specifically, where community has gone. It is no longer in the subdivisions and neighborhoods. Our cities have become dark alleyways of garage doors that open and shut with bear-trap rapidity. We come home, go about our business and do everything to firmly plant our heads in the sands of our neatly manicured yards. We build 6 foot privacy fences and our houses so that the windows don't face our neighbors houses and all so that we can have the illusion that our homes aren't mere feet apart. And what we lack in actual distance, we make up in social distance.
I couldn't even tell you the names of my neighbors, nor they mine. Especially the ones across the street. I know because in 5 years, I have never spoken with them. Not once. And I am a normally social, gregarious even, person. Why aren't we out talking by the mailboxes and inviting each other over for dinner and having block parties for the kids and getting to know each other? We all run our lives as though the rest of our neighbors don't exist. So I guess it isn't a stretch to understand how it can go unnoticed for so long when your neighbors actually don't exist. When no one is actually living in these grow houses it can so easily escape our attention because we are not caring, paying attention to, or otherwise giving a damn about any of the other actual residents of the other houses, why should we care about the phantom ones?
It is indeed sad that we care so little about where we live.
We placate ourselves with monthy dues to the HOA that we tell ourselves is maintaining our little neck of the woods. But in reality Home Owners Association is the latest-greatest oxymoron. There is no Association in these neighborhoods. If anything, we have purposely built, created, and customized a very efficient Disassociation from one another.
And this is exactly what we deserve.
We completely deserve to have drug dealers use this construct to their advantage.
Yes, we completely deserve it. This is our own fault. We are to blame. This situation is completely of our own doing.
We have fostered the perfect environment to harbor this kind of activity. Thus far we are lucky that these houses have been used for growing pot, which is relatively benign in use, has basically no overdose level, and is as safe as growing tomatoes to produce.
The meth labs in our midst are not so safe. Not only is the drug potent, addictive, and completely destructive, but the places themselves are dangerous. And if 1.1 million dollars worth of pot and guns can remain unnoticed for years, so can they.
Where have our communities gone? We are all turning our backs on each other and forgetting why we built cities in the first place: The simple principle that we are stronger together than we are alone. Yet we do everything in our ability to attenuate that basic tenet by huddling in our own little foxholes day and night. By not getting involved in each other's business. By not knowing each other's names.
We have a choice to make: We can be a community. We can be strong and make our streets safe and know what is happening in OUR neighborhood. Or we can turn our heads. We can live our own little lives and bury our heads in the sand. And in so doing we choose to fall.
The choice is simple.
Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them. Ask them questions. Answer theirs. And in so doing we will mend fences far more effective than the ugly wooden privacy fences in between our property. We will rebuild the community that we have somehow lost. We will find our strength in each other.
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