The whole state of everything just seems to be going downhill. The world, this country, right on down to the actual neighborhood I have lived in for 26 years. It's all kind of mind boggling, really.
When you look at the demographics of where I live, I don't think one would expect to see this level of rampant lawlessness, crime, drug dealing, etc. The (unincorporated) area where I live has a population of about 54,000. (The neighboring incorporated city, our address is listed in this city, has about 40,000 people living in it. They have their own separate city police and we are just outside city limits a few miles. It is 78% white, with the rest of the 13% spread evenly among other ethnicity's. The median family income is $88,000 in this area. So, where is all this decline in quality of living here coming from? It is just a result of the economy crashing in 2008, showing it's effects several years later? But these "homeless" people aren't just people that fell on hard times. These are late teens, early 20's people that have chosen to live in this manner. They are certainly all able bodied people who could get a job and work for a living. Instead they'd rather just live wherever they can find a place to sleep and steal from others to feed their bellies and drug habits. There isn't one of the 3 brothers (now in their mid to late 20's) in the house behind us that couldn't be working. There isn't one of the people at the renters house that couldn't be working or going to school. They simply choose not to do so. As I type this there is literally a tent pitched down at the back edge of our property (half on our property, under a big tree).
Then add in that our county and state have gone totally soft on crime, especially crime involving drugs, and we apparently see all of this as a result. According to our very conservative councilman, there are others in power in the county who are trying to get a program taxpayer funded to give all these homeless people in the county (the total county population is about 750,000) free housing. Our councilman asked about the drug use of these people they want to give housing to. Oh - they will be allowed to drink and use drugs while in this tax payer paid for housing! Our councilman says he is just flabbergasted. When he pressed the issue their reply was "well, we'll still work to get them off their addictions, but that could take years". I could support some temporary help while they get on their feet, but we're still supposed to allow them to use the drugs, while living in these taxpayer funded homes. How about just NO! you want to get in this housing and change your life, then you have to test/stay clean? Good grief - this is really what our country is coming to, isn't it?
In my 51 years of experience and limited knowledge of politics, I at least always felt like even though Republicans and Democrats had different ideas and ways to achieve things, I always felt that both parties were united and strong in supporting the United States Constitution and everything the U.S. has always stood for. Being a strong country, the leader of the free world, etc. I don't feel that way about the Democratic party anymore. In fact, most of them and their ideology now scare the crap out of me, if I think about it too long. I'm not one to debate politics and have no desire to. Just stating my opinion that I am scared for our future.
My DH is spending his morning at yet another county/sheriff meeting - this time it's a budget meeting he was invited to speak at. What initially we were told was to be a new 6 person drug task force (specifically to work on neighborhoods like ours) has now instead somehow (aka politics) turned into a request to budget a new 5 person "property crimes" task force. A lot of fat good that will do our situation and DH plans to tell them that when he speaks.
(though as a side note - 10 minutes of some pressure on the druggies by our new "security system" 2 nights ago has done more to quiet this neighborhood than anything the police have done the past 2+ years)
The world is a mess for sure. I can feel it in my industry in Human Resources. You can't find people to work except that they will work long enough to stage you so you can fire them, so they can get unemployment and then live off that. They do not work and they do not have a good work ethic. It's so sad. It's also sad our business is located in inner city. No one can pass a b/g check. It's horrible.
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