User Comments

1. 

   7/04/09

   SweetViolet

   Valentine's Day qualifies for both: I got the most adorable Yorkie puppy as a gift and our house was burglarized while we were out for dinner.
   
   What I'm going to do to make things better is join a neighbour in calling the police every time those brats on the adjoining property start misbehaving. They have cost me a bloody fortune this year to just keep them off my property and out of my house, and now it it time to stop those 72 hour parties so the rest of the block can enjoy the weekend and get some sleep at night.

   [reply]
   1. 

      7/04/09

      AngieA

      I bet your puppy is adorable.
      And joining a neighborhood watch is a great idea.
      Im sure it will improve things for you.
   2. 

      7/04/09

      SweetViolet

      This is South Africa. We don't have Neighbourhood Watch, we have armed response security and burglar bars.
      
      A neighbourhood watch could not have helped. The perps were the teenagers who live in a house that shares our property line. They have a 4-year history of climbing the 6 foot high, 1 foot thick brick wall that divides their property from ours, and their mother has a 4-year history of pleading helplessness with regard to controlling her children. She allows them to run 72-hour long pool parties in their back yard EVERY weekend during the warm season (which lasts 9 months here). Their back yard is full of teenagers with no adult supervision from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening.
      
      Valentine's Day is in the summer here. They climbed over the wall, broke into our house, stole a bunch of costly stuff, then climbed right back over the garden wall. Nothing to see from the street, nothing a neighbourhood watch could have done.
      
      The neighbours who share a side property line (we are their back fence neighbours) raised their wall to 12 feet (as we recently did) and put electrified wires at the top to keep them out. We put sharpened spikes at the top of our wall. We are going to join those neighbours in calling the police regularly until the 72-hour parties stop. We are as entitled to enjoy our back yards as they are...and we are entitled to sleep at night as well. Their mother has abdicated her responsibility, what other choice do we have?
2. 

   7/04/09

   rfburnhertz

   The best thing I've experienced so far is in the meeting of like minded Americans at two Tea Parties I have helped organized in my area (the third will take place mere hours from now) and the inspiration I took from them.
   
   The worst is related... how quickly many of those same people become distracted in the weeks following the events.
   
   In the remaining six months I will continue with the same over all cause and keep helping those who feel powerless and frustrated realize that they are not powerless and that they need not be frustrated.

   [reply]
   1. 

      7/04/09

      AngieA

      Tea parties? People still have tea parites?
      J/K
      Exactly what kind of organizations are you talking about that help people with their frustrations?
   2. 

      7/04/09

      rfburnhertz

      I still have tea parties with my daughters. :-)
      
      But I'm talking about the political Tea Parties taking place across America, loosely based on the Boston Tea Party that took place in December of 1773.
      
      As for the organizations, there are many, most of them not effective.
      
      I won't pimp mine here, but we help people learn how to organize, challenge legislation, run for city, county and state government.
      
      We teach the United States Constitution.
      
      And we teach people how to be political activists, how to be involved citizens.
      
      Where as protesting is fine, protesting is meaningless and a waste of time if a person isn't willing to get involved and actually do something.
      
      People feel powerless and frustrated and we've found a tool through the Tea Parties to help them feel empowered and involved.