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- Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash The problem I have with inclusivity, as a concept, isn’t that it’s inherently bad. I think opening things up to more people, in many instances, is good for everyone. There are exceptions, mind you, but there are a lot of times when it’s a solid idea.
The issue I have is that it’s been used as a bludgeon to force us to accept people and ideas that we don’t want to accept for what should be obvious reasons.
Tilting At Windmills is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Not everyone who wants to come to the United States, for example, is someone the United States should welcome. From terrorists to rapists, from gang leaders to pedophiles, many of those who seek entry into the US are people who shouldn’t be here.
Yet the left will argue that we should be including all of these people, that it’s wrong to kick them out of the country for being evil pieces of filth who never should have been here.
I disagree, in part because we’ve got plenty of criminals of our own. We don’t need to import even more of them from the third world.
Some might try to spin this and say “inclusivity” isn’t about protecting criminals, but if so, then please explain what’s happening in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Neighborhood Watch signs began in Michigan back in the 1970s and 80s as a way to combat crime with a grassroots community effort. The backstory: In Ann Arbor those signs - numbering more than 600 - have been pulled down in city-wide effort to promote inclusivity. The decision to remove them came at the direction of the city council, with the milestone of the last existing sign taken down at Princeton Avenue and S. Seventh Street on Wednesday, Although the allotted budget for the undertaking was $18,000 approved by the council, the job was completed for $16,500 according to published reports. Promoting a message of inclusion was a big factor in the decision to pull the signs down, said Mayor Christopher Taylor. Now, maybe it’s just me, but if people are put off by neighborhood watch signs, then maybe they shouldn’t be included in the first place.
Oh, I get some people are nervous that they might be accused of doing something because of their ethnicity, but if no crime occurs, how can they really be arrested for anything? It doesn’t take too many such calls that amount to nothing for the police to start rolling their eyes the moment they get notified that Mrs. Clara is at it again.
For the most part, people who aren’t up to anything aren’t going to really be bothered by a neighborhood watch sign. The people who generally are put out, though, are criminals.
So what Ann Arbor has done, in the name of “inclusivity,” is to take down signs warning criminals that these are neighborhood they’re not welcome in.
If that’s inclusivity, I don’t want it.
I don’t want anything to do with it.
I’m open to people of all ethnicity, religions, sexual orientations, and even different political views, all coming and sharing the joys of my parts of this beautiful world. I don’t want to exclude anyone from living and loving in any community I’m a part of…with the exception of people who want to take what doesn’t belong to them or to hurt innocent people.
I draw the line there, and if that means I’m not an inclusive sort, I’m more than happy to wear that mantle, because the left has sullied the concept so much that I don’t want anything to do with it.
I decide my own actions based on my understanding of right and wrong. I don’t always get it right, but I’m man enough to admit it. What I can do, though, is the best I can to try and get it right.
Telling vile pieces of trash who want to hurt people that I don’t want them around me or mine? That’s a no-brainer. No one should want them around as part of the community, and if a sign on a pole makes them feel excluded, it’s not an indicator that the sign should come down. Share It’s an indicator that we need more such signs.
This is suicidal empathy. This is the epitome of the idea that, in order to be a good person, you have to let your community be destroyed from within and say nothing.
Screw.
That.
What I want to see are people in Ann Arbor putting up their own neighborhood watch signs. Put them in people’s yards, where they’re on private property, and dare the city to do something about it. Then, if they do, take Ann Arbor to court for violating the owner’s First Amendment rights.
Be exclusive, if that’s what you must do, because the idea of inclusivity meaning to open the town up to the worst of the worst, without even a sign to try and discourage them, is downright evil.
Then again, with what we’ve seen from towns like Ann Arbor over the years, nothing about this should be surprising.
And people wonder why I like the South instead. It ain’t just the weather and the food, but the fact that we’re still willing to put rounds into bad guys and call it a good day instead of bending over and letting them have their way with our towns.
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