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Take responsibility for what can happen
By Allan Hubbard
Contributor
Published September 9, 2009
“Stupidity is sexually transmitted,” said a colleague recently.
To read our local police roundup or the details of cases filed by area law enforcement would prove that statement to be largely true.
Straight up with no shaker here, folks: Where are your heads? What are you thinking?
To the people who were aghast that their vehicle was stolen overnight while parked in front of a residence, unlocked, with the keys in the ignition.
To the folks who wondered what ne’er-do-well would steal expensive, viewable-in-plain-sight items from their unlocked cars.
What were you thinking?
To the bewildered mom whose underage daughter ended up pregnant by the boy she allowed to spend the night on multiple occasions.
To the drunk guy at the bar who inappropriately grabbed an unknown (but pretty) woman’s derriere and promptly got his own backside kicked by her boyfriend and made himself an assault victim.
What did you expect?
I’m apprehensive including the battered wife/girlfriend who repeatedly goes back time after time to their abusive significant other thinking he has finally changed despite his history of jail and even prison stints due to family violence. The female psyche, longing for love and desire to see someone (even their abuser) overcome such behaviors does not exactly rise to a level of similar stupidity.
Despite our best efforts, despite our wishes to the contrary, despite our perhaps head-in-sand mentality, all is not as innocent as it once was here in the Paris area.
In my short life, I can remember the safety of being given a dollar to walk four blocks to the corner store for a loaf of bread. The same thing for my kids, now? Not on your life.
My grandparents didn’t lock their front door in their quiet southwest Paris neighborhood. They even left the wooden door open with only the glass front door to shield from the outside world. No worries.
Not today.
In case you haven’t noticed: all the bad things you heard for all those years you thought only happened in big cities are here now. In fact, they have been creeping into every city block, trailer park and cul-de-sac in Lamar County for some time.
The time for thinking “It won’t happen to me” is over. It’s been over. You must take responsibility for what can happen to you. As sad as it is, it’s the truth.
Be smart. Think ahead, plan, consider life’s various comings-and-goings like a criminal would. Be overly cautious and know that any opportunity you give them (or that you might practice on a daily basis) will eventually lead to you being victimized.
And while it might not be a victim’s fault that a crime occurs against them, what level of responsibility do you think the mom of the pregnant girl played? Or the drunk guy at the bar? Use your heads, Parisians (and Parisites). I know you’ve got one.
Now, where’d I leave my keys?
Allan Hubbard is the victim coordinator in the Lamar County and District Attorney’s Office and the associate pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Reno.
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