So for the second time in a row, I'm writing about the good ole days.
I'm 50, I can do that.
My husband and I were discussing current problems our urban area is experiencing.
Drugs, crime, crime drugs, it's all intertwined.
The topic came up of the necessity to adding to the police force,
but I'm just not sure that's gonna do it.
Problem is, there are never going to be enough police to stop it all.
That's why I'm thinking about the good ole days,
days where the everyday citizen and neighbourhood standards
allowed , I guess for lack of a better term, community discipline.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

*Late 60's, early high school.
The coolest guy in the school says the F word on the city bus.
The bus driver stops the bus, escorts the kid off the bus,
via the scruff of his collar.
The cool kid is left on the sidewalk and the rest of the ride is non eventful.
Cool guy didn't do it again

Just imagine that happening today.

The bus driver, if he survived,
would no doubt face assault charges and a law suit.

*
My younger brother raided my dad's coin collection
to go to the corner store.
The owner not only refused to sell him and his friends candy,
but each parent had received a phone call before the kids arrived home.
The neighbourhood treated it like the crime of the century.
Not one parent made an excuse for their kid.
They all got busted, and grounded.
I don't think they ever did it again.

I really don't think we are going to get this thing licked if we don't grow some balls.
(yuck, those two words in the same sentence, oh well I'm leaving them there)

I still believe that there are more good guys than bad guys,
but that the good guys need to step up to the plate,
and not expect, ever that the police, can get a handle on it.
It's up to us.
Those with the most to lose.