A Life of (No) Crime

You know what’s funny from what I remember as a child? Not only do I find it hilarious how I made childish mistakes while speaking back then, like pronouncing “computer” as “guhputer.” No. I also find it pretty comic, though in a cosmic sort of way, of how I was genuinely innocent. For example, I really didn’t know what cuss words were. I also didn’t know what rape was, let alone sex. Furthermore, I didn’t know about the many threats that virtually plague our lives every day, causing us constant paranoia. Oh what I life I had. I was basically a prime example of how “ignorance is bliss.” I also remember when being blissfully unaware radically changed.

From what I recollect, it was about 5^th grade when things started to change. For example, I began to realize that, say, people were looking at me differently; I realized that not all were smiling at me just because they were happy, but instead because they were “faking” it. Then sixth grade rolled around, and I noticed how some were being excluded out of groups and how others were just plain mean-spirited in general. Then came 7^th, oh yes, 7^th grade. That pretty much finished up the “great revolution about life” that I was having. I remember suddenly being aware of myself as a young, independent adult - an adult prone to things like fights, robbery, and other things that break our sense of security. Wow. I still can’t believe that I radically changed my mindset of security in life so quickly – in the course of maybe a little over three years! I also cannot believe that all the crimes that have happened, have happened, and are still happening today.

It’s still bothers me how many crimes occur on average. It bothers me even further how especially heinous some of these crimes are. But perhaps nothing has prepared me more for the harsh reality of crimes than the two times that I was exposed to a crime in the making. The first one was when I was, say, ten years old, and, you see, there was this anonymous person who was burning school property, ranging from the elementary schools to high schools in the school district. Well, my friend and I were going to shoot off a rocket one day when we actually caught a prime suspect burning out one of the baseball dugouts at our middle school. The next time was quite recently, when a house right next to ours, for mysterious reasons, got yellow-taped. You know what I mean by “yellow-taped.” Anyways, these local exposures really have proven to me the great range crimes have. In other words, I realized that no one is ever safe, anywhere. I also began to contemplate yet another world in my imagination: a world without crime. I wonder what that would be like.

To say the least, I think that our world would be drastically different if we didn’t commit crimes. For one, people would feel safer about their hospitality. And because they would feel more secure, they would do things that we do commonly do every day, in order to protect ourselves. For example, we would no longer have to carry things like hand guns and lead-bottomed purses everywhere we go. Much simpler things that are done repetitively could also be averted as well. As another example, we could also deal away with something as simple as locking our doors. Heck, even our more drastic systematic methods for retaining security would be completely eliminated, as security itself would pretty much be removed from the picture. For example, security checkpoints at airports, police forces, and everything in between would disappear altogether. But things wouldn’t just be eliminated from the picture. New, more positive qualities would come into society as well. In the most basic sense, people would suddenly be able to trust each other more, whether they are strangers or not. And what comes from that? There would be a much smaller degree of rude or mean behavior towards others. And what comes from that, too? Well, we would more easily collaborate with each other, and because of that, we’d be able to work more effectively towards societal advancement.