Before my wife and I finally found ourselves in the position to leave the Bay Area behind earlier this year and return to our spiritual home here in the islands for good, she had a part-time job as a licensed security guard for several local venues and educational institutions. Most of the events she worked were sports related, but the longest hours she spent were checking in patrons for a certain NFL football team that used to operate out of a certain stadium near South San Francisco - back when they had actual coaches; when ownership and general managers knew something about the game of football instead of “the bottom line”, and the team was staffed with players without rap sheets and pictures on a clip board in the post office… but that’s another subject altogether which could probably get me into more trouble than it’s worth…
Her main responsibility was to perform security checks for incoming patrons prior to their admittance to the stadium. On any given home game on Sunday she would have to leave the house at 4:00 AM to ensure that she was in attendance to help with the incoming media trucks at 6; then from the usual early incoming tail gate crowd until the last media truck left the stadium, it wasn’t unusual for her to finally come home and crawl into bed at 2:00 the following morning.
Now some of the events she worked were rowdier than others, and others still were more mellow, all depending on who the opposing team happened to be that Sunday; however after nearly every game she would recount the experiences she had with the patrons - and a good deal of it was more than merely unsettling. I used to think that some of her stories were exaggerations borne of physical and mental exhaustion (20 hours on one’s feet with one 10 minute lunch break is illegal as hell according to California labor law, but it happened all the time at these events). But as she had more and more of her co-workers over for visits and they recollected their own experiences, it became clear that there was no exaggeration going on. Consequently some of the incidents she would later recall made me seriously consider asking her to quit that job out of concern for her life and health.
The bottom line: an increasingly large percentage of people are rude thugs with no respect for public rules whatsoever and nearly all of them possess a strongly myopic sense of self-entitlement. The various incidents she would recall regarding the myriad ways people would attempt to smuggle in alcohol, drugs and weapons were eye-opening; from inflatable canteens built into nursing bras filled with vodka to 6-1/2” switch blade knives buried in cowboy boots and marijuana hidden in disposable diapers. And although these things were expressly forbidden by the management, staff and law enforcement community well in advance of the event, people attempted to smuggle them in anyway. Once they were discovered and these patrons were asked to either surrender the materials or else take them back to their vehicles, the profanity-laced response was nearly always the same: “This is a f——’n free country!” and “I have my g——m rights!” - male or female, from the wealthy in the box seats to the humble in the nosebleed seats, it made no difference.
Yeah, yeah… we’ve heard it all: “It’s game day, fer chrissakes - they just had too much tail gate partying - leave ‘em alone, let ‘em have a good time” - how many more lame excuses can we make up to justify that kind of behavior in public? Most of the examples my wife talked about were people who were clear-eyed sober, belligerent and borderline violent. She might have been seriously hurt several times save for two way radios and nearby S.F. Police for backup.
And all this, in the middle of the country’s largest bastion of so-called “liberal” thought… so it got me thinking recently about all that as I noticed a complete change in my wife’s demeanor and health, now that she’s had some time away from that toxic environment. She’s become softer in her speech, more introspective and careful with how she approaches others. Certainly in this place we now call home, it’s far easier to experience civility in public because of the culture here - a far cry from the gang land, “get outta my face” attitudes we left behind. And although some of the vulgar schizems from the mainland have infected a few of the youth here, there’s still a strong majority that understands and appreciates civility.
Conversely that kind of myopic sense of self-entitlement back there isn’t just exclusive to sports patrons - and as I paid closer attention to how people behaved generally towards each other, it’s clear to me that something has turned terribly wrong with the country’s concept of citizenship.
Please read on as I attempt to explain.
I have a clear sense that those who so readily use the phrases “It’s a free country” or “I have my rights” possess, at best, an elementary school level understanding of what it means to be free and exercise one’s rights as a citizen - by that I mean that such people never really learned to share their toys or play nicely in the sand box with the other children. Regulations and laws are put into place to protect the ENTIRE public - not simply individuals - from wanton, blatant activities and exposure to dangerous or unhealthy things that could cause harm. For example, a license is required to operate a motor vehicle in every state and municipality in this country and its possessions for a reason: a driver must demonstrate the physical and mental ability to proficiently operate a 4,000 lb. machine traveling at at 65 miles per hour without endangering others, and further demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the laws regulating motor vehicle operation. CONVERSELY - back when the Constitution was ratified, both hand guns and rifles were muzzle loading weapons that required about 30 seconds - at best - to properly prepare for discharge. In other words, the mere preparation of the weapon for use equivocated a premeditated act to kill something or someone. Under those circumstances, firearms as used for both hunting and defense required thought, training and practice to become proficient and responsible for their safe use and maintenance. No such circumstances exist today for the use of modern firearms where at any given moment in a fit of passion, rage or mental instability, all it takes is $500 on a credit card for a semi-automatic rifle, a $40 box of ammunition and 10 seconds to load, aim and spray an entire room full of people. Do people in this country have a “right” to do this? Where are the regulations to help prevent wholesale slaughter like this from happening? Where is the will to enforce the pathetically few regulations we do have on the books? And what gives corporatized firearm lobbies the “right” to insist that nothing has changed with firearms since 1787 and to insist that regulating and licensing modern firearm operation infringes on “freedom”? Where is the consideration for the overall safety of the greater Public?
Here’s another example: from the very beginning of this country’s ability to self-publish news and opinions, it is a historical fact that Christianity was not the basis upon which public regulations were developed and constitutional law was eventually confederated. With the sole exception of the Pilgrims leaving England to escape mandatory conscription into the Church of England, every single settlement that landed on North American shores from Europe started out with only one goal in its purpose: commerce; more often the case than not, it was either spice trade with the East or the plunder of Incan gold. Yet modern Conservatism insists in its revisionist history that Christianity was the basis for this country’s foundation. Do conservatives have the “right” to broadcast historically incorrect information in order to manipulate weak, non-analytical minds? Unfortunately they do. But the people who hear that information still have the “freedom” to challenge its accuracy and seek verifiable facts then, presumably, draw their own conclusions. Again: where is the consideration for the accurately educated greater Public?
And that’s the whole rub: the “freedom” to choose. How we use those choices and that freedom has consequences, both for ourselves and others Ignoring others around us or that which regulates public behavior and safety for the sake of “rights” or “freedom” is another way of expressing contempt for our public, our country and our neighbors. The same kind of greed and selfishness that the oligarchs we rail about in this site are expressed in ways that have equally far-reaching effects on our nation, surpassing in many ways massive injection of financial wealth into the election process, or even direct terrorist acts; the erosion of civic responsibilities from within simply makes the job of our enemies that much easier to accomplish.
Citizenship is not a “right” without responsibilities; regrettably this is not generally taught either in the home or in the schools to the extent where it should. Failing to do so puts this nation in great peril from internal collapse, and human history is rife with examples that demonstrate the consequences.
Freedom - rights - the two most important words in the human lexicon are rapidly turning into two of the most abused.