Vicious Circles

The other day, my wife was talking to a neighbor. This neighbor barely answered the door, and when she did, it was only to say that she doesn’t usually open the door out of fear for what might be lurking outside. You see, we don’t live in the safest of neighborhoods. In the last year or so, a neighbor’s son was shot and killed, another person was killed in an apartment complex next to our neighborhood and a drug dealer was killed about a mile away.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like a scene from Back to the Future Part 2 or anything. But it’s in one of those areas that may have a questionable side to it. I don’t happen to agree that the answer is to hide behind closed doors, as after all, in such a neighborhood, that might be a prelude to a robbery more than anything, so it doesn’t really make much sense.

An interesting editorial turned up in the paper last week, and the combination of the two made me think: We are afraid, so we hide behind closed doors. Yet because we aren’t out and about, we make it easier for those who want to do what they want to do just that, because no one is outside to challenge them. That, naturally, makes for a more frightening place to live. Anyone see the problem here?

It’s reasonably common knowledge that an unlocked car or house is a pretty decent deterrent to crime. This is because it’s just a lot easier (read: faster) to steal something when you don’t have to first break in. Generally a lot quieter too. The principle is the same here. If you don’t like the people roaming the neighborhood, get your butt outside and make it uncomfortable for them. They’ll go elsewhere, where the pickings are better.

Something similar has happened at our local schools. While some schools in the district are perceived as ‘better’ schools and attract all sorts of attention, our local schools are perceived as, well, just not that great. There is a high mix of races, and test scores may not be quite as high as the others. Yet strangely enough, our kids have done better at the local school than they did at those ‘better’ schools. What’s more, the atmosphere is more relaxed because it’s less crowded. Go figure.

How can that possibly happen? Involvement. There is a significantly higher portion of it in the local school than there is elsewhere. It’s closer to the student’s homes, so naturally it’s easier for the parents to be there. It can work. Yet those people who just look at the numbers or the racial mix see only problems, so they move their kids away. Does anyone think that that really solves the problem?

The answer isn’t to get up and move away to find something better, it’s to dig in and make where you are a better place. It might not be the easiest road, but it is most definitely the most rewarding.