Is the world going to shit? I'm not sure i've completely made up my mind on that one yet. Some say that life is what you make of it. I can buy that, but only to a certain extent. We can only control so much - we cannot, however, control the actions of others. This brings me to the real question - how much can you trust people? Before i get into this further, let me throw out a few things that have occurred in and around my neighborhood here in beautiful Ypsilanti, Michigan, in just the past month and a half:
-The apartment beneath my girlfriend's is broken into and robbed.
-A man stabs two people, killing one, in an apartment complex i used to live in.
-A liquor store down the street from my current residence is held up at gunpoint by two teenagers.
-A kid is shot just down the street from my apartment.
-The apartment above mine is broken into and robbed.
-A man is nearly beaten to death just a block away from my apartment.
And finally...
-My apartment gets broken into, with some mindless moron making off with about $40 and my roommate's laptop computer.
All this shit in a span of just about five weeks, and just in my neighborhood. The cop who took the report at my apartment said that they respond to about three or four breaking and entering calls every day. Now, i know that may not seem like a lot to some people, but you have to consider that Ypsilanti isn't really that big (in 1995 the population was around 45,000 - and you could probably cut that number in half if it wasn't for the university).
Luckily for my roommate and i, we didn't lose too much. So, to be completely honest, i really wasn't all that angry about it - at least not as angry as i thought i'd be in that situation. I was actually more pissed when my car got broken into a couple of years ago and some asshole made of with some Jethro Tull tapes of mine. But then again, i'm sure i'd have been a lot more pissed if i'd have had more than just $20 in change taken. But it's still pretty creepy knowing some one was in my house rooting around, which brings me back to the question at hand - can i still trust people?
It's a tough one, i'm truly divided. On one hand, i really want to trust people. I want to have faith in the inherent goodness of man. I don't want to have to constantly be looking over my shoulder every time i walk down a dark street. I don't want to be in a constant state of paranoia that my apartment or car is going to be broken into. I want to be able to go to a party and know i'm not going to be stabbed or shot. Simply put - i just don't want to live my life in fear. But on the other hand, i have to realize that in certain neighborhoods you just cannot leave your doors unlocked and that there are certain streets you just do not walk alone down at night. I really don't think that flat-out, 100% trust in people is an option anymore.
I guess you just have to find a middle ground. Like i said, 100% trust in people just isn't an option, but living in total fear isn't an option either. A friend of mine from high school named Max* comes to mind here. In 1995 (a year before i started at EMU) he was visiting another friend here in Ypsilanti when he was attacked and robbed by a man named Mike Ball*. Ball was arrested later that night, drugged up, with my friend's wallet still on him. Max identified the man and there were two eyewitnesses who also identified him, but the case ended up being thrown out on a technicality. The whole ordeal, understandably, was traumatizing for Max - and from the last i had heard, he still had not gotten over it. For a couple years he was a total recluse. He rarely left his house, he would never go out after dark and he lived in total fear. It crippled him. And there are many people in similar situations. Some of them haven't even had something horrific happen to them, they're just paranoid.
And that, to me, is really sad. I don't ever want someone, or some thing, to have that much power over me, and i won't let them. I'd rather be shot in the back by some thug while living a normal life than to live locked away in my room. I won't lose my trust in man, not completely, not yet. I know there are psychos out there, but we have to get back to a point where we stop letting the clown act run the circus. It's time to take back control. And how we do that, i really don't know. Some may say it is just a case of a few rotten apples spoiling the bunch. Nowadays, however, i think the fear is no longer that there are bad apples, but that there are more bad apples than good. I guess if i had a definite answer to the problem i wouldn't be writing this. I'd probably be out walking on water somewhere. Either that, or hocking autographed vials of holy water on QVC. My best advice, i guess, would just be to be careful. Before you leave the house, lock the doors and just hope we can figure out a way to wrestle the power back from the lowlifes.
*I changed the names for no reason in particular.
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