Bob Dreizler's Resources: Portrait of a Potential Urban Avenger
Portrait of a Potential Urban Avenger
Fresh graffiti defaces a beautiful mural. Ashtray litter is dumped in an empty parking lot. Blaring music pierces the silence of the night. All of these are minor crimes compared to the horrible acts that headline the Six O'clock News, yet the cumulative impact of these rude acts is starting to drive me crazy.
At times I feel like I'm an inch away from snapping. In my fertile imagination I've actually gone off the deep end. Taking the law into my own hands, I remove my shirt to expose sweaty, rippling muscles, and then don a caped costume. Sometimes I even grow a Steven Segal pony tail and teach the evil-doers of the world a painful, but valuable lesson.
Fortunately for the thugs, hooligans and chronically thoughtless, I don't have super-human strength. And my absence of devastating martial arts skills is matched only by my utter lack of physical courage. So the bad guys and gals still freely roam the streets, knowingly or unknowingly committing their crimes.
Sometimes these selfish or lazy actions do more than irritate me; they crawl inside my gut to stew in juices of bile and venom. My normally amiable temperament fades, and before long I'm giving strangers dirty looks for the slightest offense.
What if I really did snap and confront these violators in mid-misdemeanor? Would I scold them with a wagging finger, giving them one of my infamous parental lectures about consideration and thoughtfulness? I doubt my eloquent tirade to them would be any more persuasive than are pleas to my children
.I realize that the police have higher priorities than chasing deranged commuters who flagrantly run red lights during rush hour. And city budgets being what they are, it's unlikely that a Task Force To Eradicate Annoying and Rude Behavior will soon be formed.
So, why should I even waste my worrying resources on such minor offenses? There are many more significant issues than these to fume about. Right this minute, wars, big and small, are being fought all over the world. Hunger and disease claim thousands of new victims daily.
Yet I feel like I have done my noble duty by honking at an oblivious cellular phone-user weaving in and out of traffic. While forests, deserts, and jungles dwindle, I wrinkle my brow at those who don't recycle quite much as I do.
Why do the mini-crimes I actually see make more of an impact on me than a newspaper headline about a vile deed a thousand times worse? Perhaps gory TV news stories and ads for violent movies have desensitized us to blood and suffering and destruction. It's easier to hate selfish, thoughtless individuals than to loath faceless multi-national corporations, evil foreign governments or conscienceless terrorists.
I know there's plenty more I should do, but I don't, so instead of becoming a vigilante, I've decided to become more vigilant. I'll look for opportunities to be more courteous when driving, and I'll try to help someone every day. Besides, giving a lost traveler directions is a lot less dangerous than pointing out an etiquette code violation to a guy who is twice my size with half my charm.
The next time I start plotting revenge, I'll pick up some discarded trash instead. I'll smile and say "hello" to a stranger. If enough people did the same, the impact might be more powerful than an army of tough guys roughing up litterbugs and confronting graffiti vandals.