Early yesterday afternoon I was strolling along the beach, taking in the sights and sounds of families enjoying the holiday. There were all manner of sun shades, ranging from a simple tarp tied to tree limbs, to rather extravagant looking tents. One enterprising soul commandeered two trees for hammock duty. Children were playing in the sand, there was a multi-ethnic/racial soccer game going on using trash cans as goal posts, and the usual assortment of sun worshippers and swimmers.
The only annoying part; children setting off firecrackers in full view of the lifeguards, and surely within earshot of Chicago's finest who were ensconced in two patrol cars at the end or Morse. They let it pass.
What a difference a day makes!
Last night an untold number of M-80s or their near cousins were set off in my neighborhood. I wondered if a dumpster or two served as containers to amplify the noise. Today, as I walked along the beach I saw the detritus that yesterday's visitors simply couldn't dispose of properly. Along with the array of plastic bottles, a styrofoam cooler and assorted pieces of paper, there was a veritable cornucopia of debris from last night's explosives. Just to the south of the Heartland's outpost sat an impressive display of trash that spoke of a personal fireworks display that must have been a sight to see. Evidently the cops never saw it. Notable too was that the Mambas and others all had bright "WARNING" signs on their containers. I am sure for good reason.
Today I read Toni's post about the bozos with the roman candles. I wonder if they were at the beach yesterday, threatening other folks who crossed their path. Fireworks are illegal for a reason: they are dangerous in the hands of amateurs, and also in the hands of the simply stupid. As I said in my comment; just because people want to act stupid is no reason to give them the tools to do so. Looking at the mess on the beach, I'd have to say that there is reason to believe the stupid fools playing with explosives are also lazy jerks. Too bad they weren't taught any better. The park staff will be cleaning it up I am sure. This is partly what we pay taxes for - cleaning up behind lazy, stupid people.
3 comments:
Kheris, you wrote, "Too bad they weren't taught any better." That fundamental solution sums it all up nutshell.
We are long overdue for some new and dramatic strategies to help parents teach and guide their children toward a better path. We need something more than a few struggling non-profits paying attention to this. We even need more than the long-delayed park district facility at Gale Park. Given the spotty quality of park district programs and what will probably be limited hours of operation (i.e. late week-night hours and weekend programming for families are needed)I'm not keen about it as being a substantive solution to our social problems.
We need somebody in authority to come up with a creative, and at least a partial, solution to addressing not only youth issues, but also the weak and non-existent parenting skills here. For instance, our public schools have the names, home addresses, and phone numbers of every parent. Schools should be the first place to look for establishing a partnership to recruit parents and involve them and their children in effective programs.
Some will say we need more funding for such programs. Sure. But does that mean we can do nothing without it? Of course not. More than money, what we really need is the community and political will to do something new and different, including marshaling more community resources to meet our needs.
Please could someone explain to me why fireworks are okay in public parks, but you can't swim out past your waist in the lake? I get the Nanny State thing, but I think this nanny has been nipping at the cooking sherry.
On the 4th my friend, an Evanston resident - also a competitive long distance open water swimmer - was almost arrested on an Evanston beach when she questioned this absurd regulation. The basis of the near arrest: resisting a lifeguard's "authority". She asked, quite rightly, what authority? These lifeguards aren't officers of anything so why couldn't she swim where she wants to, since the City of Evanston isn't liable if she drowns herself while choosing to swim (a not insignificant detail)? The police officer that the lifeguards called to harrass her after she "resisted" blustered at these questions and then "banned" her from the beach for the day - a beach she pays a special fee to use. Oh, plus the 10K property tax to the City of Evanston. What's wrong with this picture?
Now I know Chicago isn't Evanston, but I think the same principles apply. Is the city liable if you drown in the lake because to choose to swim? No. You can drown yourself in six inches of water and from time to time people do. But at the same time, we have a small percentage of the population taking over crowded parks for several days, shooting off what are effectively weapons for fun, people injure and kill themselves and bystanders regularly and that's no problem?
I grew up in California and we kids swam in the Pacific ocean everyday. If you think Lake Michigan is a more challenging environment to swim in, you are wrong. Back in those days, many beach front communities were moderate to low income. There weren't always lifeguards at every beach and therefore parents made sure their kids really learned to swim, at the YWCA or teaching us themselves, before turning us loose in the ocean. People learned not to take idiotic risks, because we knew you could get killed out there and there was a culture of watching out for one another and cooperating, where the better swimmers taught the others stuff. We really frowned on people who didn't know what they were doing in the water. That peer pressure served to keep people from going out of their depth pretty well.
We made good use of that wonderful inexpensive recreational resource for all kinds of exercise and sports beyond getting our shins wet or floating around on it in a boat drinking cases of beer. But during most of my childhood, fireworks were strictly banned on public beaches, on the principle of the danger and interference to public use they posed to bystanders.
If there is a principle behind unrestricted fireworks use in the parks (but against decent lake access for swimming) beyond bread and circuses for the most immature and impulse driven among us, I'd really like to hear it.
rebecca, I notice that the lifeguards at Pratt Bch and others have been strangely authoritarian and arbitrary this summer.
I came to the beach on the day of the Festival of the Wall with my beach chair, and was ordered off the beach while I was getting set up because of a storm warning. That seemed plausible, but then I noticed that the lifeguard did not clear the beach.
I don't understand the swimming restrictions keeping people so close to shore. But perhaps the rules for boats have changed, because I have noticed some very fast boats being operated less than 200' from the shore. I didn't think this was legal but I don't really know what's legal.
However, it seems that boaters are being allowed to pre-empt swimmers to a ridiculous and unfair degree.
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