Little Criminals

I have a very rich life on-line. My Facebook friends (with and without IPO sweetheart deals) outnumber my flesh and blood friends sixty-six to nothing. In a sense, connectivity is a variation of The Borg, an antagonist of The Enterprises's Captain Jean Luc Picard on some television incarnation of Star Trek. What one person knows on Facebook or Twitter or Google Plus, thousands know in the time it takes to type or text and hit 'send.'

Personal experience is tribal knowledge. That's why upon waking on Sunday morning, I was at first amused, then disquieted and finally enraged over a piece of video that the owners of Phillys, a small business with a big heart, posted from some point Saturday evening when two bozos (my apologies to clowns everywhere) attempted to steal the light bulb from his porch fixture as they ambled from some Point A to an equally undefined Point B. Seriously. He calls them Light Swipers-the name I call them makes my mom sad.

The clip, posted on youtube as Phillys Most Wanted,  lasts a little more than a minute, and now seen by who knows how many people, amply documents exactly why we cannot have nice things in The Rose of New England. The incident happened in the middle of what should have been a great Memorial Day weekend. We had the Rotary Carnival downtown with lots of feet in the street, mouth-watering barbecues happening all across the city and preparations for Memorial Day ceremonies just about completed. Except for last-minute light bulb shopping.

We do big things really well around here-build bridges, roads and schools, make sure the lights come on and stay on and that the water flows (except when there's a flood and then we have people who make it stop). Yep, the big things are easy; the devil is too often in the details.

After we have new sidewalks, no one seems to feel responsible for sweeping up the dirt and detritus that so often covers them. We all step over trash rather than pick it up and put it in a bin usually a few places from where we are and, as Phillys is finding out, we're all really good at the look-away when an unpleasant situation would disappear into thin air with just a glance of interest and concern.

If we take the 40,000 of us who live in Norwich and add to that number all of those on each of our lists of  'aren't there people working for the city who take care of that?' we'd have another five thousand residents. Instead of waiting for someone to catch the 'Light Swipers' or the 'Mulch Moochers' who visited a house down the street from mine over the weekend, or the 'Car Antenna Breaking Cretins' who think what they're doing is a joke, when we see something, say something.

It's foolish to insist it's the police's job to apprehend everyone who brings down our city's quality of life because not only is it not solely their job, they can't possibly do it alone . The same is true for every elected official, for every schoolteacher, and for every government employee. It's convenient to point fingers and blame others (and often very satisfying ) except three fingers on the hand point back at ourselves. Blame is one thing-responsibility is another and we are  responsible for what goes on in our neighborhoods, cities, state and nation-each of us and all of us.

Instead of shaking your head at the overgrown grass the State Highway department hasn't cut yet on Washington Street near the Sweeney Bridge, helping to make a really lousy impression at a gateway to the city, take some pictures with your cell phone and send them to the highway department yourself or, share them with the City Manager who'll forward them along with everyone else's.

If you don't think your one voice is being heard, you have two choices: stop talking entirely and people will assume your silence equals consent or, instead of simply raising your voice, improve your argument until people have no option but to listen and hear.
-bill kenny