Visalia Times

Well I came home to visalia and realized exactly why I seldom return. It wasn't longer than 24 hours of me parking my car outside my house than my bike was stolen. Just like that, I woke up the next morning and saw my best attempts to protect my daily means of transportation to school were neatly cut in several locations. I put up 4 locks to secure the bike... yes four. One of which was a U-lock, and the rest were cables protecting the tires, securing the bike rack, or the seat and basket. This is certainly not the first time something like this has happened. In fact I've never had a bike that was not stolen (this would bring the grand total to 5). Again, I am not careless with my bikes, or my things in general. I arrived home late and was tired, and considered the bike safe as anything could be. Well, I don't really need to be negative, I hope whomever is the benefactor of the 3-month old bike enjoys it. I certainly did when it was mine.

Here is a sequay i'm not sure is completely in line. Please don't read it if you will fault me for it, or pehaps even better, please don't fault me for it unless you can correct me: You know it is an unfortunate thing that happens here in America--we silently welcome unrestrained immigration into this country by turning a blind eye. And at the same time discriminate and predjucate against those entering, limiting their opportunities and liberties. In doing so we create a perpetual influx of underclass citizens who, in one way or another, support our lavish lifestyles and powerful economy. It is most often not the immigrants who conflict with this society, but rather their kin. Sons and daughters who grow up in this dichotomous world find anger and frustration with their situation, feel unfairly labeled as a second class citizen, and see the gap between them and their neighbors (albeit neighbors across the tracks). We have created this vicious cycle--knowingly or not--because it benefits us. Our labor jobs are being filled with hard working low earning individuals and the bottom line is our pockets are getting fatter because of it. It is when this hard working low earning individual, or that person's son or daughter, looks around and then wants what others have around him or her that the problem derrives. Once that happens, the Haves protest the Havenots attempts at equality, discriminate against them, misallocate resources away from them, and provide double standards for Have children and Havenot's. In these neighborhoods other alternatives develop and are nurtured by the same predjudices and inequalities that begat them. Alternatives such as theft, drugs, sex, and violence are sought. A de-emphasis on education and a breakdown of cultural ideals and ethics are natural repercussions of this destabalizing factor. And then the Haves wonder why we put up gates around our houses and curse at the Havenots for the theft, vandalism, or urban decay that ensues. We are, in part, the perpetrators responsible for what is happening and we HAVE the influence, power, and means to change this vicious cycle, but fail to do so because we are scared of its possible repercussions.

I don't want to write down a half baked solution, and though I have given this a lot of thought, I would like to postpone writing it down till a later time. I also don't pretend that todays theft didn't inspire this, but it is by no mean an insular event. Finally I don't want to imply that immigrants from the south are responsible for all theft, this certainly isn't the case, but I cannot pretend to ignore that the kind of theft I describe is asymetrically perpetrated by that group in Visalia. I have had 5 bikes stolen in my life (4 of them in Visalia). We have had 1 car stolen, 3 broken into, and one incident in which I woke up and walked outside to see that by brother's car was being stolen (they had picked the lock and were inside working on the ignition when my presence caused them to flee in their car). I've also come home from high school with the unfortunate luck of having every cabinet, closet, and droor opened up, its contents either stolen or spilled on the floor. Yard equipment, mailbox, landscaping decoration, and probably some things I can't recall all taken from our house. It funny that these petty crimes (aside from the car which by the way was found charred and smoking near the railroad tracks after it was stripped and set ablaze--the police at that point asked my father to pay for its towing to the scrapyard after he positively identified it) happen and it does little to ameliorate the situation for the criminal. It doesn't provide them with the funds for social or economic mobility, rather it is an act of desperation, a way to somehow retalliate against those that they feel are undeserving, a stab at the the oppressors.

To contrast this... it was ironic that my friend Daren called me today to discuss plans for our trip to Napa. I asked him what he was up to, and he replied that he was reading the police reports from the city of Atherton in the newspaper. The two biggest stories were: a woman reported that she heard a chicken outside her window, followed by a woman reported her daughter missing but while still on the phone her daughter returned. The Visalia Times Delta doesn't even print the daily police reports... go figure.