Date: 04-07-95  17:59
  From: Larry Sites
  Subj: Christians in the hood


As some of you know, my fiance and I own and live in an 
appartment building in one of San Diego's inner city 
neighborhoods. It is the cities most ethnically diverse area and 
has some interesting human drama. Our building, along with two 
single family houses, is isolated on the edge of a canyon. I and 
the two neighboring families maintain our section of the street. 
Keeping the right of way mowed, free of trash, grafitte, and 
hookers. Two years ago, while picking up trash, I found a gang 
member shot to death. Because of the nature of our area, we and 
both the nieghboring houses have watch dogs. They let us know 
when strangers are around. Occasionaly someone will mine the 
trash cans for refundable beverage containers. I'm all for 
recycling and have a separate container just for recycling. 
While I normally return these myself and pocket the small change 
for my efforts, I don't begrudge those less fortunate than 
myself access to the trash cans provided they don't make a mess. 
I've even encouraged one elderly man to take the collected 
refundables in the past. Lately an older woman has been making 
the rounds. The first time the dogs brought her to my attention, 
she came right after trash pick up and left after finding the 
cans empty. A few days later, I was alerted to her presence and 
I watched her from a distance as she made a mess including 
taking the tops off the plastic bottles and throwing them on the 
ground. The next time she returned, I confronted her and simply 
stated that she made a mess on her last visit. This she denied, 
stating that she had been there before but made no mess. I took 
a plastic bottle from her bag and pointed out that it had no top 
and last time she threw caps on the ground. If she would have 
fessed up to her previous actions and merely indicated that she 
would be more careful in the future, I would have invited her to 
pick away. Guess what, rather than admit her past actions, she 
again stated that she made no mess AND stated that she wasn't 
lying BECAUSE SHE WAS A CHRISTIAN. I lost it and could only 
shout that I had seen her with my own eyes. I guess she decided 
I'd believe them over her resort to a religious lie and left 
before I went beserk. Lying religion, created by liars for 
liars. Got any in your hood?