Are We Livin' In "The Hood"

August 14, 2009 — Wanda and I have lived in south Austin for a good long while now. I'm not sure how long Wanda has been in this area, but I have been here since coming to Austin in the fall of 1986. I'm sure there are better areas in which to live, but south Austin has always fit my needs. It has just the right mix of folks I suppose, but it has always seemed to be so down to earth and I think it's because of the "redneck" influence. Rednecks know how to live and get along generally. They are friendly, earthy, loyal, and they like to have fun. But something is going wrong.

Last night our next door neighbors, who are deaf, had a window in one of their vehicles shot out by someone with a BB gun. Two blocks away there was another vehicle that had the same thing happen. Now we all say...oh it's just some damn teenagers who have nothing better to do and just want to be vandals. I suppose that is probably the case, but what gets into a young persons head to go and do something like that...if indeed it was a young person.

We have lived on the street we are on now for almost two years. In that time there have been, on no less than three occasions, incidents such as this. Some incidents are worse than others. Wanda's son who lives on this street had his vehicle broken into and ransacked. They stole some CD's and that was all. Wanda and I had our truck (the Juan Gomez) egged pretty good one night. There were reports approximately three months ago of several cars having windows smashed. All of it senseless crap.

So what leads people to do these sorts of things. Is it because of poor parenting by someone, is it the sign of the times (meaning the economy...house burglaries are up in this area), or is it just plain ol' boredom. I think back to when I was 12 or 13 years old and how my friends and I would on occasion get out of hand by throwing tomatoes and eggs at cars that were moving and then running like hell. We did it for something to do...because we were bored.

Some people say it will change when school starts up in another week. Maybe it will, but I am not sure. These are tough times and kids today think about things in an entirely different manner then the way I did at a young age. If you don't believe that then just take a look at some of the crap on MySpace or Facebook. To keep from living in "The Hood" one has to stay vigilant and take care of their stuff. I don't mean to get paranoid about it all...but just pay attention. It's what really matters!