The One Man in San Francisco Who Cares
Mark lives in modest accommodations. He has a modest job. In his spare time he prepares for his next studio album. He is an accomplished musician.
The building he lives in is on an alley. It is the only building with its front entrance on that alley. Mark cares for the alley as he cares for his own space.
Mark lives in a rough part of downtown San Francisco, in the worst of the worst neighborhoods one could want to exist in. But his humble home, the adjacent alley, and a little bit of the space around is notably watched over by a grown man with a sense of responsibility over the territory in which he lives.
Mark’s presence can be felt. The presence of a responsible man can be felt. There is little that can replace that willingness of a person to just be responsible, even responsible for that which he did not cause.
In the month or two before a public announcement was made by the White House — as it slowly became known in political circles that Kamala Harris would likely be at the top of the Democrat ticket — more effort began to go into making sure San Francisco looked like it was on the mend.
The considerable homeless problem, crime problem, and drug problem that has been allowed to take place in the open, directly in front of police officers suddenly started to be dealt with. The shift could be felt. Until approximately November 15, 2024, until a week or two after the November 5 election, I expect that there will be a mighty continuation of that shift.
In the run-up to the last election in 2022, there was a small shift. This one is more noticeable. During the November 2023 visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, there was a major and sudden shift — all the homeless were cleared out of the downtown area, making the city look as if it were a model example of what a city should look like.
Within a few weeks following the departure of Xi Jinping, the city looked just as rough and tumble as it normally had over the past decade.
It was all for show.
This current show is partly meant to make sure that no one can look at Kamala, the top cop from San Francisco and California, and say “Look at San Francisco, this is where her broke policies lead.” Well, the truth is, this is where their broke policies lead.
In 2000, a corrupt Texas politician and his team were allowed into the White House. He brought his garbage ideas with him. Sure he spoke a good conservative and Christian game, but he gave America two plus decades of forever wars. The most awful terrorist attack on American soil took place on his watch, and that attack has to date never been properly investigated or explained. He was neither conservative nor did he govern by the Bible. He ushered in a police state unlike anything Americans have known since the internecine conflicts of the 1860s, only so much more total in scope. In 2008, a corrupt Chicago politician entered the White House. He ushered in all-out warfare on the American people in a way that has never existed. In late 2019, he and many others were so bold as to orchestrate a coup on the elected president, that resulted in the elected president’s ouster from office. The 2020 election was stolen and much of the establishment apparatus of all political stripes cooperated or remained silent in the face of that stolen election and coup. They ushered in a puppet regime, which proved a near-immediate failure to the American people. In all but the most gentle of ways, the establishment apparatus of all parties remained silent. Many remained silent, even those who were not part of the establishment. In their immediate circles of influence, no matter how large or how humble those circles were, many Americans said nothing.
We each have circles of influence — big and small.
It has been a pretty special two decades to be alive. It has been a pretty special two decades to watch. Many who know what is happening in their midst only watch. They do not do. They only watch. Shame on you. Who exactly did you think would pull your home, your family, your community, and ultimately your nation out of this mess if not you? You already know you are the most politically and socially aware person of many hundreds or even thousands around you. You already know you see things that many others miss.
Do we not already know that to whom much is given, much is expected?
Stop sitting around and asking yourself “Why don’t the others get it?” The others just don’t get it. Accept that. Move on. Quit spinning your wheels on such a nonsensical question as “Why?”
Move beyond that.
“Why?” truly can be the most self-debilitating question that exists. There are circumstances in which “Why?” is appropriate and there are circumstances in which “Why?” is one of your greatest enemies. The latter is more common.
Just like any tool, the question “Why?” can be used for its proper purposes, or it can be abused. To use the beautiful gift of “Why?” as a stumbling block that leaves you stultified for some two decades, is, dare I say, a terrible abuse of the English language. It is also terrible self-abuse. And it is abrogation of duty.
Were these not such desperate times, I might not be troubled by your abrogation of duty.
But, my friend, these are desperate times, and though we may never have talked before, I know you all too well. You are part of “the silent majority.” You are part of the do-nothing group who sees much. You are one of the mockers who laugh at the stupidity of a home, a family, a community, even a nation who he was called to lead.
Yet, I know exactly what your daily schedule looks like: 16-18 hours of self-abuse and abrogation of duty followed by some sleep, repeated every day for some decades.
You are one who possesses discernment in an era in which so many are blind and in which so many lead everything astray. Why do they lead everything astray? Because they are blind. Can the blind not walk? Yes, they can if they know the way. All they need is someone to show them.
Who would that person be? Who is the one who could show the blind the way?
It is the one who spends 16-18 hours a day on self-abuse and abrogation of duty, followed by some sleep, too busy, too disinterested in developing his voice, too disinterested in making his voice matter, and too disinterested in showing them the way.
Shame on you.
Shame on you for the ways that you have let your home, your family, your community, even your nation get to where it is today.
Shame on you.
Have you really done all you can?
That is a question between you and your Maker. It is not a question between you and me.
Have you done all that you can?
If you have not done all that you can, perhaps some repentance is in order this very day. Repentance is the act of turning away from a bad way you have travelled, and turning onto a right path. That sincere acknowledgment, that turning away from ways that you have missed the mark, that sincere acknowledgment can echo through one’s life and can produce much good fruit.
Mark, who lives in the very worst, most abject community west of the Mississippi River, tends his alley. He does not own it. He does not get paid for it. No one will ever thank him for his efforts. In fact, people are more likely to get after him for trying than they are to thank him.
The latest orders of Governor Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and other political insiders are to superficially clean the streets of San Francisco for the next few months until the November election is settled in favor of the hometown girl, who will then bring the unlimited budget of the Federal Reserve Bank into the coffers of the most connected in San Francisco.
Well, that is happening, and Mark’s alley is one of the places where the displaced homeless and drug addicts are being pushed to. What does Mark do in response? He pushes back. Every single day and in every single way, he wants his little alley, his little corner of the world in which he lives, his little building, his humble accommodations to be just right. He pays attention. He helps. He knows what is going on around him. He knows who is coming and going. He wants his few blocks of community to be watched over.
Do you know why?
Because Mark has a sense of responsibility. That means taking on extra work for things you did not do. That means taking on extra burden for things that you did not do. That means taking on extra accountability for things that you did not do.
The wrong-doing of others, wrong-doing that they will not fix, for all intents and purposes becomes your wrongdoing, so that you can fix it. You become the fixer of that which you did not break. You take responsibility. Things will not remain broken on your watch. Every time there is graffiti, it will get immediately covered up. If you know you are in that kind of neighborhood you always have the paint ready. Every time the new homeless encampment shows up in your alley, you go and ask them to move, and if they do not, you are on the phone with every police officer you know until something is done. If you live in that kind of place, you have the business cards of lots of police officers ready for a moment like that. You vow to take responsibility, and you vow to be as ready as you can, always willing to grow and to do the uncomfortable in order to make things right.
Dear reader, I do not know exactly how you live or where you live. But I know where Mark lives, and I know what the rest of America is like, because I have travelled it well. In the midst of the worst America has to offer, Mark maintains his alley well. That is partly because Mark has eyes to see the difference between right and wrong. Many do. But Mark does not then engage in 16-18 hours of self-abuse and abrogation of duty each day followed by some sleep. Mark instead takes responsibility, even over that which he did not do, and over that which he did not cause, and yes, even over that which is not his own.
Do you?
Or are you a silent partner to what is happening? Cooperating with the downfall that you claim to be so opposed to?
Your self-righteousness in such a moment is unearned. Just because you see what is wrong does not give you any moral high ground. Absent your willingness to take responsibility for that which you did not do, and for that which is not yours, absent that, absent your willingness to constantly expand the territory and improve the territory over which you take responsibility, absent that, you have little business feeling good about yourself in a time like this. You have little business sitting back and saying what a bad job everyone else is doing, what a bad job A, B, or C group has done driving X, Y, or Z into the ground.
The people with eyes to see but who choose to sit and watch, who grab a bowl of popcorn and watch, who perhaps even laugh, or gawk, or mock, at the destruction of something beautiful — they are no friend of mine.
They are also no friend of humanity.
Part of maturity is taking responsibility for that which you did not cause, and having no complaints about the fact that you were the one who had to stand up and do so. That is just who you need to be if you are to be a mature adult. Your responsibility is needed. Your mocking is not needed. Your laughing is not needed. Your complaining that it was you who had to stand up is not needed.
You’re many ways of doing nothing while saying “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” are not needed. The moment you start to speak that or even to count your contributions and to say that you have done enough — the moment you do that, you are no friend of humanity, but a petty and poorly raised child keeping score in life rather than winning in life.
Be a man. Not just a male.
Be a woman. Not just a female.
Maturity is now required of you, even if childhood used to be what was largely demanded of you — no matter your age.
Be the one who is mature enough to take responsibility over the territory around him, without complaint. Totally without complaint — instead of complaint,with gratitude that you were made for a moment such as this, with gratitude that you get to be the adult in the room. With gratitude that you get to be the one that no one will ever thank, certainly that no one will ever apologize to. The the one who doesn’t concern himself with such things. Instead, you are just grateful that you get to be the one who was capable enough in the moment, wise enough in the moment, willing enough to act in the moment.
Imagine that, being one who walks through life grateful for challenges and responsibilities, rather than doing that which has become the norm among American adults — complaining, avoiding, and mocking.
To he who lives in this upright way, he knows that it is a reward all its own. Accepting responsibility and carrying its burden gratefully through life is a reward all its own. You are not thinking about keeping score when you do so. You are not thinking about what is owed to you, who has done what, settling accounts — all of that petty way of thinking is the farthest thing from your mind.
In fact, you eagerly take on more.
You know the greater your burden, the greater the growth of your muscles. Do you understand what an ingrate you sound like to the rest of us when you complain that your burden is too heavy? Do you understand what an ingrate you sound like to the rest of us when you complain that your life contains too much of that which grows you into someone more mighty and more formidable? Do you understand what you sound like to the rest of us when, even worse, when you refuse the challenge and just sit back and mock?
Get as far away from that way of thinking as possible. This time needs more of you. Or you can just be another of the many nearly-useless adult children that have become the norm of American society.
Do you know why America looks like crap? It is not because there are crappy people. It is because the ones who have the vision to see the problem and to see what must be done, those people have better things to do.
Such are no friend to me.
Such are no friend to humanity.
Such cannot be called a man.
Embrace those burdens. Embrace that responsibility. The way out of this mess begins in your life, and it begins with you doing exactly that.
Godspeed dear friend.
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