Those of you who have read my posts would more than likely agree that most of them carry a tone similar to that of an old man shouting at children to stay off his lawn. This post is no different.

However, instead of shouting at children to stay off my lawn, I am shouting at one of my neighbor’s 4 pitbulls to stay off. Yesterday, Corrupt, yes the dog’s name is Corrupt, decided to punch through my wooden fence for the 5th time in less than a year. In case you are wondering the other dogs are named Felony, Convict, and Rumor.

So, because somehow it has become my responsibility to keep their dogs in their yard, I head out in the snow with freshly ripped fence boards and make the repairs.

As I froze my ass off, I grew increasingly angry and a figurative piece of sand firmly planted itself under my skin. A grain of sand that has grown in to this pearl of a post.

In short-Why the hell is it my responsibility to cover the costs tied to the happiness of others? My assumption is that these dogs bring my neighbors some degree of happiness. Who knows, perhaps they were court ordered to raise these animals, but I doubt it.

The neighbors will not maintain the fence, the city will not seize the animals, and it’s not worth fighting in small claims court. Where is my recourse? It looks like, as it often occurs in Detroit, I have no other option but to live down to the lowest common denominator.

This “living down” runs rampant in the city of Detroit. Alarm systems, bars on windows, picking wind blown garbage out of your yard, taxes, increased insurance rates and more are tangible costs we pay for the happiness of others.

Case in point, I stopped by the party store after fixing the fence. I stood in line behind a fella who peeled off a sawbuck to pay for his pint of congress vodka only after using his bridge card to pay for his 2-liter of Faygo. I know this is not a rare occurrence but coupled with Corrupt’s jail break, I was fuming.

Then it hit me-every week a big bag of dog food makes its way into the income-adjusted house of my neighbors. Who’s paying for that? I know they already use a bridge card-I discovered this after a knock down drag out over the card in the front yard this summer after it was discovered that someone had used up all the credits in the first two weeks of the month.

Don’t get me wrong-I believe in the attainment of happiness at all costs-until you begin spreading the costs of your own happiness onto the shoulders of others.

So how do we do this Detroit? How do we ignite the fire of personal responsibility? How do we reinstate the laws of cause and effect? How do we turn down the spigot? How do we show the benefit of actually earning what you have?

Random drug and alcohol screenings for anyone receiving “entitlements” or welfare? [[People are already screaming bloody murder by disallowing smoking in public housing.) Disallow pets in the homes of welfare recipients? Reduce welfare payments to families with children earning poor grades? Sterilization for those deemed unfit parents? Deny voting rights for non-tax payers? Place a refundable deposit on McDonalds hamburger wrappers, Big Chug bottles and Funyon bags?

We could just sit back and let the problem take care of itself. Keep throwing money at the problem while those who care [[tax payers and home owners with a vested interest) leave thereby shrinking the tax base and available funds to throw at the problem, creating bigger problems which pushes more out which... and on and on and on until there is nothing left and nobody to care.


I would love to hear your thoughts. What can be done? Can anything be done? No idea too outlandish! Let’s hear it!