Do Something

I love it when people complain about the neighborhood they live in - and when you ask them whats wrong they tell you about the graffiti and garbage and stuff like that. Then, when you ask what they have done to help, they say nothing. If people aren't going to do something to help, then you have no basis to complain.

Why do I even mention it? Good question. I've usually lived in nice neighborhoods with little to no graffiti and a generally clean area. There has never been a need to do any clean up. Now, we've moved back to Augusta, Georgia and live in an apartment that is not exactly in the best part of town.

When we got here, the first thing I noticed was the gang graffiti on the mailboxes. There was also garbage all along the back fence of the complex - which our apartment looks out on. So, one of the first things we did was to clean up our section of the fence. I had the kids go out and pick up all the garbage that was right out back - and now it looks fine. The next project was the mailboxes - I think that if you leave graffiti up, it just encourages more and tells whoever is doing it that they can get away with it. So that was next.

We asked the apartment complex management to provide the spray paint, which they did, and we all went out to paint over the graffiti. Not long after we started painting over the graffiti, there were five or so teenage males that came out of a nearby apartment and walked slowly by, watching us as we painted. I have no doubt that they were the boys who did the original painting. We took pictures of the graffiti before we started and I also took pictures as we progressed and of the boys who were taking an interest in our anti-graffiti project. They walked back and forth until we ran out of paint - all of the graffiti was painted over, but the mailboxes were not a solid color. So, we halted our project for the day. We wholly expected our anti-graffiti painting to be regraffittied within a few days, or the weekend at the latest. Much to our surprise, no one tried to paint on it again. We requested and received more paint from the management and finished up the painting a couple of weeks later.

While we were finishing up the painting, people who were driving through the complex would slow down and watch what we were doing. All they could see from the road was some people behind the mailboxes spraypainting. As we were finishing up, one guy parked and walked around the mailboxes to see exactly what we were doing. As he walked around the side of the boxes, I could tell be the stern look on his face that we thought we were up to no good. I made eye contact with him and asked him how he was doing. He looked sternly at me and then at the back of the mailboxes. When he saw that we were painting over the graffiti and not making graffiti, his demeanor immediately changed and he said, "Oh, you're painting over the graffiti. Thanks." His tone was one of surprise and sincerity. I casually said, "We all have to do our part," and finished up the painting and went inside. He still seemed surprised. I don't think many people around here take much interest in anything much greater than survival.

We saved a little paint so that if the graffiti comes back, we can quickly remove it.

I know that by removing the graffiti we have made ourselves more of a target in the neighborhood, but I'm not really worried. Everything is insured and we can cover the deductible. As far as the safety of the family, we always watch the kids go to and come from school and they are never out of sight. The doors to the apartment are always locked at night (although they are not exactly "sturdy"). I go to PT early in the morning and come back at seemingly random times during the day, so there is no way to tell when we're home and when we're not. If someone makes the mistake of breaking into the house while we're asleep - they will quickly find themselves on the receiving end of some .40 caliber hollow points.

I wholly believe that if everyone would clean up their areas and maybe just a little bit outside of their area, everything would be much better for everyone. There are more good people in the world than bad people - but the bad people just do more to get noticed.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke