Thursday, May 25, 2006
Only one law?
The city I live in just passed an ordinance requiring all pets be embedded with an identifying microchip. Yeah, that's going to happen. The people who keep their dogs on two-foot chains without water are going to be lining up to comply. Me, I'm just glad of the chance to torture my cat for no reason at all.
A less developed section of the city is mobilizing to keep Wal-Mart from building a big store near some expensive houses. One resident even alluded to his desire to keep out the "trashy people and vandals" the store might draw to the area. Meanwhile, out in a non-incorporated section of the county, neighborhood residents are testifying and picketing to keep a cement plant from being built across the street from a children's park.
I'll stipulate the following:
1. Many city parks are almost unusable because of all the dog feces on the ground. People do need to have more regard for the neighbors and for the animals themselves.
2. I live near a big shopping mall, and it does indeed attract a bad element from outside the neighborhood.
3. Residents say that the county passed up an opportunity to buy the land (now threatened with the cement plant) for open space.
I was trying to follow an exchange elsewhere about -- I think -- the emotional reactions inherent in certain philosophies.
I'm not strong on philosophy in general (for that you need my mother or my daughter) but one comment stuck in my mind. The speaker mentioned liberals as being the descendents of John Stuart Mill. I thought Mill was in favor of smaller government. I only read "On Liberty" and it was a long time ago, but the way I recall it is as a defense of personal responsibility as a way to secure individual rights. The sense of responsibility is what seems to be missing in the current local controversies.
I subscribe to the theory that we really have only one law: Don't be a jerk. Most of the attempts to micromanage other people's lives have been overly detailed efforts to define what it means to be a jerk. Here's a thought: Jerks aren't just the people who spray-paint their initials on buildings and play their radios too loud. Jerks can also sit in nice offices and make it against the law to act, dress or speak differently than they do.
Most of us know a jerk when we meet one. I'm not sure that sense can be taught.
A less developed section of the city is mobilizing to keep Wal-Mart from building a big store near some expensive houses. One resident even alluded to his desire to keep out the "trashy people and vandals" the store might draw to the area. Meanwhile, out in a non-incorporated section of the county, neighborhood residents are testifying and picketing to keep a cement plant from being built across the street from a children's park.
I'll stipulate the following:
1. Many city parks are almost unusable because of all the dog feces on the ground. People do need to have more regard for the neighbors and for the animals themselves.
2. I live near a big shopping mall, and it does indeed attract a bad element from outside the neighborhood.
3. Residents say that the county passed up an opportunity to buy the land (now threatened with the cement plant) for open space.
I was trying to follow an exchange elsewhere about -- I think -- the emotional reactions inherent in certain philosophies.
I'm not strong on philosophy in general (for that you need my mother or my daughter) but one comment stuck in my mind. The speaker mentioned liberals as being the descendents of John Stuart Mill. I thought Mill was in favor of smaller government. I only read "On Liberty" and it was a long time ago, but the way I recall it is as a defense of personal responsibility as a way to secure individual rights. The sense of responsibility is what seems to be missing in the current local controversies.
I subscribe to the theory that we really have only one law: Don't be a jerk. Most of the attempts to micromanage other people's lives have been overly detailed efforts to define what it means to be a jerk. Here's a thought: Jerks aren't just the people who spray-paint their initials on buildings and play their radios too loud. Jerks can also sit in nice offices and make it against the law to act, dress or speak differently than they do.
Most of us know a jerk when we meet one. I'm not sure that sense can be taught.
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Ah Dorothy - you have such a refreshing perspective. As your mother, however,I am one of the people who is supposed to know who John Stuart M. is...well, I read the book too. Even longer ago. I dont think Mill is a liberal. He is more like a libertarian. Not the same. I do like the suggestion that members of a community should all have a sense of responsibility. That is Millish. We hold these truths to be self evident -- we all know a jerk when we meet one. But the current misunderstanding I see is - and its born out by your examples - we are all only interested in our own immediate surroundings. Here in Arizona we worry about all the people who speak Spanish coming into OUR towns. Who do we think was here before we - settlers from the old world - showed up? Not only a sense of responsibility is required, but maybe a sense of history too. The current jerks are arguing over here, by the way, about how a person cleans up after their dog. Is it ok to put it in someone elses garbage can (handily sitting on the street, full of garbage)? Some of the can owners say no fair no fair. Dog owners say they dont want to carry the little plastic bags all the way around the block and back. Talk about petty quarrels. This takes the cake - or the poop. Whatever. Jerks.
# posted by 
: 12:36 PM
: 12:36 PM
We sat on the beach today and agreed with your new law, "don't be a jerk". It was so peaceful there today with no lifeguards and no rules and everyone just enjoying the sunshine, lake and beach together-water is too cold to swim so no worries about drowning. The jerks we were complaining about are the drivers who drive up along the right side and then cut in after everyone in the left lane has been patiently waiting their turn. It is funny how these petty things drive us crazy-makes a good column, tho!
Sure. But sometimes, rosebud, I want to be a jerk and cut in...I guess the other rule - I know a jerk when I see one - also applies. ME.
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# posted by : 12:16 PM
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