You better stop, children!
What's that sound?
Everybody look
What's goin' down?
On May 3 we covered some history and geography that paints a sort of bulls-eye on the general vicinity of MD-28 and Rock Creek for the Midtown Alcoholics Anonymous Sex Cult.
We then covered some basic morality as it relates to taking actions and living with outcomes.
Then we did some digressive exposition on Alcoholism, Cultism, and Neighborhoods Gone Bad.
We did some exposition on the philosophy of Jefferson separating Church and State, on pseudo-science as formally entrenched in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV, and how Mystics are seeking to penetrate the systems of government and society by offering Cultish Religion and Pseudo-Science as an alternative to incarceration.
I very frequently find myself asking myself, "how did we, as a society, get so fucking crazy?"
I once wrote a science fiction story in which terrorists infected the water-supply with a genetically-engineered bowel parasite that had been altered to take up residence in the human bowels -- giardia does that quite well in its natural state -- and then produce subclinical levels of ergotamines, precursor chemicals to lysergic acid diethylamide.
In that silly piece of science fiction, everyone exposed to this goes slowly -- or not so slowly -- out of their mind. Don't worry, our water supply is safe and abundant.
Yet, how did we as a society get so crazy? How did we as a society get so crazy?
Today, I was at the dedication ceremony for the Matthew Henson Hiker Biker Trail, which also was the dedication of a pavilion-and-memorial for Idamae Garrott, an influential Montgomery County politician, instrumental in the development of that park.
I go to a lot of this sort of event.
After all, I have lived in this neighborhood since 1963, and this park is a big deal in our neighborhood, as well as in adjoining neighborhoods.
Also, since about 2002 or so, I have been involved in a lot of things in the neighborhood. I have been a member of the board of directors of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc. I have been a longtime member of the Mid-County Neighborhood Initiative, a rather broad-based "community policing" anti-crime initiative. After all, Aspen Hill does in fact have significant crime problems.
On about four occasions over the last five years, I have encountered a certain uniformed officer. I always say hi to this officer, as I think it's proper to be civil to our law-enforcement people. The last time I saw this officer, and a variety of other law-enforcement personnel I've met over six years of once-monthly meetings in pursuit of making Aspen Hill a safer place, was at a Town Hall meeting addressing perception of danger in the Wheaton/Aspen Hill "mid-county crime corridor". I was a candidate for County Council and so it seemed reasonable to me to attend, especially since an e-mail invited me to come.
So, today, I said hi to this officer. This officer said something to the effect of "we meet again, are you following me around", and I said something -- after some pause to think -- that having citizens follow police officers around was rather a reversal of the usual order of things. This officer remarked to the effect that "not really, you'd be surprised by the number of police wannabees out there". I remarked that, actually, that doesn't surprise me at all. (See also, thematically, the entire content of this multi-part series and the preceding series.)
The Montgomery County Department of Police has been promoting "community policing", a public outreach program inviting the community of concerned citizens to develop contacts with, and pass information to, local law-enforcement. Can we reasonably interpret this as the County attempting to find, and make friends with and informants of, "wannabees"? Is that what this uniformed officer was telling me?
If the contempt that I heard in this officer's voice -- and as the officer was in uniform I presume that it was a professional voice -- was for citizens co-operating with police in pursuit of a safer and more-secure neighborhood, I have to wonder why this "community policing" program is being pursued, much less why it is being funded. I am not a cop, and I am not a wannabee. I am a concerned citizen who actually lives here in the neighborhood where I have encountered this person four times over five years. I live here. The officer's visiting, albeit on the job.
I'm a local, active in local politics and in community, and I am a journalist if not an official media journalist. If you don't see this as journalism, why the hell are you reading it? I've been spending cash-out-of-pocket for years and putting in a lot of sweat equity cleaning up local parks and looking for glaring problems to report under the "community policing" theory of operation. If that makes me a "wannabee" and properly the object of open contempt at a gathering featuring "everyone who's anyone" in Montgomery County politics at both the County and State level, perhaps that explains why the general public isn't living up to expectations in terms of joining in the whole "community policing" thing.
And again, I ask you: how did we, as a society, get so fucking crazy?
As in my little science fiction story, I'd love to blame it on terrorist tampering with the water supply. In the story, it was an infestation with a genetically-engineered bowel parasite, giardia. That would actually be nice... there's a cure for that.
But this isn't terrorists... We did it to ourselves.
It's one thing when you've got crazy people infesting the neighborhoods around the local addiction clinic and homeless-handout center:
Leggett's proposal to move facilities is a result of meetings with residents who live near Broome at 751 Twinbrook Parkway and have said that the clinic's location in a residential neighborhood, next to Meadow Hall Elementary School and near Rockville High School, is inappropriate.
The clinics, which have been located at Broome for more than 20 years, offer services for people dealing with substance abuse and mental health disorders and a re-entry program for those released from prison.
"I know that I'm outraged and it sounds like the council members don't really believe it's as bad as it is," said Jennifer Espinoza, who lives across the street from the clinics.
County officials responded with short-term solutions, including hiring part-time security guards during the hours when children are walking to and from school and installing security cameras. ("County elections board to move to Gaithersburg: Fate of neighboring drug addiction and mental health clinics remains uncertain", Crisostomo, Contessa and Montes, Sebastian, Montgomery Gazette, May 6, 2009downloaded 2009 May 9)
I've been to 751 Twinbrook Parkway on many occasions. It's where you register your candidacy for County Council. And like Ms Espinosa, I am familiar with the problems there.
[ ... ]
751 Twinbrook Parkway is, in fact, your shopping center for the outcasts, the weirdos, the wackos, the delusionals, the dimwits, just about everyone in the County who isn't so messed up they can't let them out on the street, they're all milling about at the bus-stop across the street in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Anyone driving by is likely to mutter "helpless, homeless, hopeless" while pointing a finger as if playing "eenie meenie miney moe", and at whomever they point as they mutter, they're likely to be right, in a sad sort of way. [...]
[ ... ]
Most people, if they bothered to think about it, might speedily come to the conclusion that it might be a lot better to have them sitting inside a house rather than milling around right across the street and around the corner from no less than two public schools.
[ ... ]
As I asked earlier...
How did we, as a society, and how did we, as individuals, get to be so fucking crazy.
More to come?
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