America is rightly proud to boast that it is the land of the free. My Haitian neighbors blast their music, have leaned used mattresses against the front of their home, and step over trash that has spilled from their barrel without picking it up. I am incensed. In my home for 27 years on a clean, quiet street, I took out a home improvement loan preparing to “age in place.” I now fight feeling pushed out and as though it was a bad investment.
The town government laments with me and others about how littered it has become, the improper disposal of furniture in wooded nooks within the community, in our parks, and on roadsides, but has done nothing that eases my anxiety about feeling as though order is slipping away. Townwide education about how to be a considerate neighbor, curb appeal, and good stewards of our planet could easily be planned and implemented. Petitions to the “powers that be” to do so are outmatched by excuses, half measures, and inaction.
The common “enemy” in colonial America was the Indians. Slaves and servants suffered the brunt of Indian raids. Governor Berkeley turned a deaf ear to the slaves’ and servants’ petitions for help. Meanwhile, along with his upper class cronies, he made money doing business with the Indians on the side.
Who should I be angry with? Immigrants for behaving “freely” having received no acculturation? My government that ignores me?
0
