At the park this evening...

[AlbinoRhino]

No this isn't a firearms related encounter. But I was at the local park by my house running tonight and saw something that bothered me. I don't know why it bothered me because I'm usually not offended by anything what so ever, but this kinda got to me.

I was running along the track tonight and noticed an awful lot of paper towels and litter laying around the far end of the baseball field by the park restrooms. As I got closer i noticed lots of white markings all over the sidewalk and in particular a large swastika right in the middle of one of the walkways drawn really big in chalk.

Now I figure it was just some stupid teenagers fooling around and being idiots, but it really pissed me off that somebody would do this in the middle of a public park. A place where families and elderly people like to walk and where people take their kids to play after school. What bothered me more was after thinking about it I figured that it has probably been there since the night before and nobody had bothered to clean it up or call anyone to clean it up.

I decided since it was just chalk that I'd try my best to remove it so I stood there kicking the chalk around and rubbing dirt into it and got most of it removed or at least to the point that people couldn't tell what it used to be.

However, while I'm doing this something I noticed people were looking at me very funny as I was cleaning it up. A few older people were staring at me and a younger kid was looking at me weird with a "wtf is he doing" look. Now I figured the kid had no clue what it was or what it represents in the context of today, but why would the adults be looking at me so oddly? I can excuse kids for being stupid kids and pulling pranks, but I think what pissed me off the most was the fact that nobody seemed to care that it was there. Now I'm not some crusader for peace, love and all that hippy bullshit, but I just think there's some places where people shouldn't do that kinda stuff (a park where kids play being one of them) and I think that others should be more willing to step up and do something to correct the problem. Anyway I don't know where I'm going with this rant now so /rant off.

[Curmudgeon]

The world, and specifically this country, needs a few more like you. I'm proud of you.

[RaisedByWolves]

Yeah, mee too.


But the problem is that from a distance they probably saw some lunatic trying to kick the sidewalk into submission.


Perspective is everything in an instance like this.

.

[fingers80002]

Maybe they were O supporters, pissed you were de-facing his new symbol.....

[LittleRedToyota]

thanks for cleaning that up.

mind saying which park it was?

[pirateron]

Sadly, the majority of people are desensitized to litter, grafitti, etc., which is why no one did anything about it. Can't go anywhere without seeing garbage laying around. I live on a heavily travelled road and I constantly have to pick up cigarette packs, soda cans, fast food wrappers, the list goes on and on. So, by actually caring, you are the minority, hence the odd looks.

Depending on the park you were in, the swastika might have been put there deliberately for people to see by some visiting dignitaries preparing for the G20, as opposed to some punk kids foolin around.

Regardless, kudos to you for giving a shit and acting on it.

[Retired One]

No this isn't a firearms related encounter. But I was at the local park by my house running tonight and saw something that bothered me. I don't know why it bothered me because I'm usually not offended by anything what so ever, but this kinda got to me.

I was running along the track tonight and noticed an awful lot of paper towels and litter laying around the far end of the baseball field by the park restrooms. As I got closer i noticed lots of white markings all over the sidewalk and in particular a large swastika right in the middle of one of the walkways drawn really big in chalk.

Now I figure it was just some stupid teenagers fooling around and being idiots, but it really pissed me off that somebody would do this in the middle of a public park. A place where families and elderly people like to walk and where people take their kids to play after school. What bothered me more was after thinking about it I figured that it has probably been there since the night before and nobody had bothered to clean it up or call anyone to clean it up.

I decided since it was just chalk that I'd try my best to remove it so I stood there kicking the chalk around and rubbing dirt into it and got most of it removed or at least to the point that people couldn't tell what it used to be.

However, while I'm doing this something I noticed people were looking at me very funny as I was cleaning it up. A few older people were staring at me and a younger kid was looking at me weird with a "wtf is he doing" look. Now I figured the kid had no clue what it was or what it represents in the context of today, but why would the adults be looking at me so oddly? I can excuse kids for being stupid kids and pulling pranks, but I think what pissed me off the most was the fact that nobody seemed to care that it was there. Now I'm not some crusader for peace, love and all that hippy bullshit, but I just think there's some places where people shouldn't do that kinda stuff (a park where kids play being one of them) and I think that others should be more willing to step up and do something to correct the problem. Anyway I don't know where I'm going with this rant now so /rant off.

Thanks for cleaning it up and do not feel like your the only one that feels that way. This just goes to show you what society has become.

1 coming at you...

[mrjam2jab]

Sadly, the majority of people are desensitized to litter, grafitti, etc., which is why no one did anything about it. Can't go anywhere without seeing garbage laying around. I live on a heavily travelled road and I constantly have to pick up cigarette packs, soda cans, fast food wrappers, the list goes on and on. So, by actually caring, you are the minority, hence the odd looks.

beginning of last softball season...there was a lot of trash under the bleachers and along the fences. People were just sitting there among it watching the practice. I grabbed a 30 gal. trash can from the club house and literally filled that can with trash! Dumped the can into the dumpster then left the can by the bleachers. Would you believe thru the season after each game people actually left their trash ON the bleachers as they left???

[fingers80002]

beginning of last softball season...there was a lot of trash under the bleachers and along the fences. People were just sitting there among it watching the practice. I grabbed a 30 gal. trash can from the club house and literally filled that can with trash! Dumped the can into the dumpster then left the can by the bleachers. Would you believe thru the season after each game people actually left their trash ON the bleachers as they left???

No surprise here, people( used loosely), expect others, ( insert .gov, or volunteers) to care for them, take care of them, follow behind them, to clean up their mess........

[pandemic]

I noticed there were 5 or 6 swastikas on a map here in Japan. I decided to black them out with a marker. I later found out they're symbols for temples...









Of course I kid. If I were at the park I would have helped.