I hate to do this. It hurts me as much as it hurts you. (Not really, but it sounds nice when I say that.) But the time has come once again to point out, scream out, and freak out about the ridiculous amounts, the copious amounts, of trash in this city. I’m not talking about the literal garbage I see overflowing from residents’ carts along the curbs either. I’m talking about this influx of trash in the form of people, like a new species of human beings. Now I’m not old—I’m not out of touch with reality or my generation or anything like that. I’m not a prude and I’m not uptight. So when I can look around myself and get just a hopeless feeling from things I am seeing, something is wrong. We have too many people committing too many crimes and random acts of violence. I find it hard to believe that just because I seem to be the only one who talks about it, I can’t be the only one to notice it.
    Duluth has had some issues lately and we hear about them all of the time. We lost much-needed revenue from Fon-du-Luth Casino. We hear about that. We had a water rate increase, we hear about that. I-35 travel times make us want to seriously choke ourselves to death with change found in our center consoles (don’t do it, though—change is hard to swallow), and of course we hear about that. But what about the petty and sometimes not-so-petty crimes all over the city that we don’t hear about? Are we just ignoring this now because we have realized that with Minnesota’s “come and get some” welfare system, there is just nothing we can do anymore? I hope that’s not the case, but it does seem that with the rise of non-working families in poverty in Duluth, there has been a steady influx in the crime and drug department. I’m so sick of it! We are not a big enough city to be competing with major metropolitan areas for crimes like drugs, theft, and vandalism, but guess what. We are competing! It has to be said that this directly corresponds with the manner in which we treat the perpetrators of these crimes. Do you know it’s actually HARD to get locked up? You actually have to work at it in Duluth to be kept incarcerated for more than a day or two. That’s a sad reality,  but it’s one that us hard-working, taxpaying people are facing.
    A couple weeks ago, the office in which I work was again, for the fourth time in a year, hit with spray paint “art.” I’m so completely tired of this. I’m moments away from camping out overnight incognito to catch the little pricks and force them to lick the spray paint clean. Yeah, I know I’m kind of small, but I promise you that with the adrenaline rush I would get from finally getting my hands on the “artists,” anything is likely and possible. Or what about the guy/people who keeps setting things on fire in West Duluth? Seriously? Who at this point wouldn’t like to just camp out, see him in the act, follow him/them home, and just burn every little thing they have ever owned? Right to the ground! And then do a little ceremonious dance around the ashes. It sickens me that a human being (if it can be called that) can cause so much destruction, hate, and violence to innocent people, over and over, and still be walking the streets. Are we residents living with our eyes closed? I can’t believe no one sees anything. Or maybe that’s not the case—maybe no one is manning up enough to report what we are seeing.
    I feel like once again the crime around here is just out of hand. I haven’t said very much about this lately, but something hit me on a personal level, which brings it to the forefront of my mindset. A couple of weeks ago, my grandmother’s house was robbed. Yep—I said grandma. Elderly woman just trying to survive on her own. She recently left the countryside, where she was used to living, to move into the city, because of the death of her husband. She lives in the Harbor Highlands housing area, an area supposedly built to integrate ALL kinds of people into a safe, affordable community. Ha! Yeah, right. I hate her living there and I hate to see what she has to contend with. And now she goes out of town for a little retreat and is ROBBED. I can’t imagine the scum that did this didn’t pass by her sweet little knickknacks or rooms full of Bibles and prayer lists as they carried out her television. I can’t imagine how the punks didn’t think, “Ok, this is mean,” when they passed by my grandfather’s ashes or her quilts she works so hard to sew. They can’t of course know her personally. They can’t know that she’s a survivor of the Depression. That she is a survivor of abuse and other unspeakable things. They don’t know she is a breast cancer survivor. They don’t know she prays at night vehemently for her family, friends, and everyone else she has come into contact with that day or any other. Of course the lowlifes wouldn’t know any of that. But does it matter? Does it matter who she is? Not really, because no one deserves to have their trust and feelings of safety violated in such a manner. It just so happens that you did this to MY people this time, so it’s personal. But truly, if there was one person, just one, in this whole city, who did not deserve that, they found her. The sad part is, had they broken in when she was home, they probably would have walked out with cookies and muffins—or baggies of frozen spaghetti from November (remember I said she was a survivor of the Depression—things do NOT go to waste in that house). I’m just telling you this: if I find the creatures that did this, they are going to pay—and I’ve got the word out that I’m looking.
    I’m angry—I’m crazy angry. I’ve always been very outspoken about my utter disdain for anyone who acts “ghetto.” I don’t care what color you are, how old you are, where you come from, or what’s been done to you. At the end of the day, we are all stuck here on planet Earth together. What good does it really do to lie, cheat, and steal? It hurts people. I don’t know what has to happen in Duluth. If it takes more of my taxes to get more police, then so be it, I’m up for that. I checked on crimemapping.com and it said just from June 11 to June 16, 277 crimes were committed in Duluth city limits. A lot of thefts, fights, vandalism, and drugs. Ish. Is this really what Duluth wants to stand out for? I don’t know about you, but I really think it’s time to take out the trash and throw it farther than the curb this time. Throw it in jail and keep it there.