Why can't we all just live together in peace?
In the complex where I live the houses are quite close to each other, so we have rules about what is acceptable. These rules include driving at the speed limit (20km/h), no honking the horn, no loud music, and if you're throwing a party and it runs past 11 o' clock, you are expected to keep it down. These rules are there so that we can all live in peace.
This last weekend I had a taste of what happens when someone breaks the rules. Someone in my street invited over a couple of friends on Friday afternoon. They parked the car in front of the house (nice 2.0 Golf GTI), turned the car stereo on nice and loud, then proceeded to have a barbecue in the backyard. At arround eleven I walked over and asked them to keep it down, at which point they made a slight reduction in the volume of the car stereo. The party nevertheless continued until the early hours of the morning. This was somewhat irritating, but it is not the first time a neighbour bent the rules somewhat. At least this one didn't go outside at three in the morning singing to the moon along with Ge Korsten's "Liefling".
Unfortunately the party continued on Saturday. For most of the day we had to listen to a type of music that basically goes "BOOM" every two seconds with some sort of talking in between. The party now moved from the backyard to the front. Once again the party continued until 03:30 the next morning. All this time several people asked them to keep it down, but as the blood-alcohol level rose their willingness to do this diminished somewhat.
On Sunday morning a car was parked in the neighbours driveway across the street, several empty bottles were piled into the car and they left. A while later they returned with reinforcements. The party then continued, with more heavy drinking, now in the street in front of the house, with the music still going. The angry stares from the neighbours only made things worse. While capturing a video clip of all this with a cellphone, one of them was even shouting something at me in some or other language I don't understand.
By 17:00 they finally left.
The result of this is that this person will probably be given a warning or perhaps even evicted (a similar incident, limited to one evening, has already led to complaints on a previous occasion). To make it worse, the tenant is black and most of the rest of us are white, which means the whole incident will be painted as racist at a later stage.
And that in short, is why we cannot all just live in peace. Nothing wrong with that really. Even married people sometimes need some time on their own. We cannot live in peace, not all of us, and not always. If we can recognise that and give each other some space (and respect) we might be a lot better off.
This last weekend I had a taste of what happens when someone breaks the rules. Someone in my street invited over a couple of friends on Friday afternoon. They parked the car in front of the house (nice 2.0 Golf GTI), turned the car stereo on nice and loud, then proceeded to have a barbecue in the backyard. At arround eleven I walked over and asked them to keep it down, at which point they made a slight reduction in the volume of the car stereo. The party nevertheless continued until the early hours of the morning. This was somewhat irritating, but it is not the first time a neighbour bent the rules somewhat. At least this one didn't go outside at three in the morning singing to the moon along with Ge Korsten's "Liefling".
Unfortunately the party continued on Saturday. For most of the day we had to listen to a type of music that basically goes "BOOM" every two seconds with some sort of talking in between. The party now moved from the backyard to the front. Once again the party continued until 03:30 the next morning. All this time several people asked them to keep it down, but as the blood-alcohol level rose their willingness to do this diminished somewhat.
On Sunday morning a car was parked in the neighbours driveway across the street, several empty bottles were piled into the car and they left. A while later they returned with reinforcements. The party then continued, with more heavy drinking, now in the street in front of the house, with the music still going. The angry stares from the neighbours only made things worse. While capturing a video clip of all this with a cellphone, one of them was even shouting something at me in some or other language I don't understand.
By 17:00 they finally left.
The result of this is that this person will probably be given a warning or perhaps even evicted (a similar incident, limited to one evening, has already led to complaints on a previous occasion). To make it worse, the tenant is black and most of the rest of us are white, which means the whole incident will be painted as racist at a later stage.
And that in short, is why we cannot all just live in peace. Nothing wrong with that really. Even married people sometimes need some time on their own. We cannot live in peace, not all of us, and not always. If we can recognise that and give each other some space (and respect) we might be a lot better off.
posted by ispburger at 11:32 am
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