Why do we have elected law makers? Why do those elected law makers bother making
laws when no one enforces them on a uniform basis? Why does it seem like folks in the Ruling Class
are judged by one set of rules and “us of a lesser breed” are judged by another? Why does it seem like there is a total state
of lawlessness engulfing our nation?
It starts in the Oval Office when Presidents refuse to
enforce immigration and refugee laws that Congress passed. It continues when Congressmen and Senators
encourage people to break laws that they don’t like. Then, states and localities simply ignoring
federal laws. Where does it end? What
happens if you or me simply refused to obey laws? We’d have the black, jacked boots of the
bastards right down on our throats.
Maybe it is Ruling Class over Country Class. Maybe it is that “they” see themselves as our
“betters”.
I don’t want to buy into the Marxian trap of blaming “the
oppressor class” for the ills of the “oppressed”. Marxism is such a stupid over simplification
of things. But that is why Marxists and
other Progressives like it – it is so simple; poor = good, rich = bad, white =
bad, black or brown = good. There is no need for thought and thinking is hard
for Progressives, Socialists, and other Liberals.
But I digress. Why do
we bother with laws, regulations, codes and other such implements of social
structure when no bothers to enforce them?
We, Gennie and I, live in a subsidized rent apartment building for
retired persons. Back in May, we
discovered that there was water leaking through the ceiling of our shower. Obvious to most of us, there was a leak
somewhere in the bathroom above ours.
Every time that I heard the “plink” of a drop of water hitting the floor
of our shower, I would wonder from whence that drop of water originated.
It took from the 20th of May until the 17th
of July before the building management company got around to ripping out the
rotted ceiling and insulation from above our bathroom. The ceiling tiles and insulation were full of
mold. (I purchased a mold test kit earlier in July and cultured at least 5
different types of mold, one of which looked like black mold to me.)
It seems funny to me that I had been fighting with my
allergies ever since we moved back to the Redbank Valley. Even taking allergy shots, I was down for
three or four days a month with sinus infections and such. I have not had a bad sinus day since July 17 when
the plumbers dragged the moldy crap out of our apartment. As a matter of fact, I have been able to go
from weekly shots to every other week.
Musta’ been sumpin’ in the air, there!
I did not use the phrase “dragged out” in the previous
paragraph by chance. That was how the
plumber removed the mold infested materials.
No cautions, no masks, no ventilation, no removing residents, just rip
it out and drag it out. There are pages
and pages and pages of building codes and regulations and laws regarding the
removal of mold. Nope. The building
management company just ripped and dragged.
I mean, why spend all the money on legislators’ salaries and then not
care if people don’t abide by the laws, codes, and regulations?
But the water kept dripping. Seriously.
Along about the 24th of August, the management
company finally ordered a replacement shower for our apartment and a new tub
for the apartment above ours. The lady
above us needed a walk-in shower, so Gennie and I told the plumber to use the
shower planned for us for her and just order another walk in for us. No good
deed goes unpunished and it took over a month for the building manager to order
another shower stall for our apartment.
To add insult to injury, when the shower stall arrived, the two end
walls were cracked.
It took another month for the next
one to arrive.
So, here we are into the third week in October, 5 months
after we reported the problem and our shower is still not installed
properly. The poor plumber is trying to
get it done, but he has no real idea of what he is doing. Yesterday, he replaced the ceiling insulation
and put up dry wall without sealing the wood that had been exposed to the
mold. The shower, which is supposed to
be handicapped accessible, is not. The
moldy wall is still there, the moldy linoleum is still on the floor.
There are volumes of laws, codes, regulations regarding landlord
responsibilities to tenets. There are
pages of code and law about mold removal and treatment. And, fundamentally,
there is the simple thing of just doing the right thing and treating people
with respect and dignity. The company that manages our building does not seem
to give a rip about laws, codes, regulations, or treating people kindly.
It’s not that we haven’t tried to get the authorities
involved, because we have. The USDA
funded the construction of the building.
They have done nothing. We have
contacted several state agencies that oversee elderly programs, none of them
have gotten involved. We have tried to
report elderly abuse, no one seems to care.
It will take some kind of tragedy to get the attention of
the authorities and then they will just pass more laws that no one will enforce.
Why bother with laws at all?
