It’s a pleasure when people “walk their talk” and Ted Vaill has been doing that by walking our beaches to record the accesses. It seems that besides finding beach accesses, unfortunately, there was also an unexpected finding of graffiti. Sadly, I must inform Ted that although our first thought in incidents like this is to associate with Los Angeles gangs, I have personally seen local boys defacing the rocks along Pt. Dume and other areas north of Zuma with graffiti. At the time of this incident I confronted the boys but they continued and ignored me. I decided to use my cell phone to call the sheriff and lifeguard stations to report to them. However, when the boys realized this, they left. I did tell the parents though.
When things like this happen, I am reminded of a word that seems to have vanished from our vocabulary as well as from our daily lives. That word is “Respect.” (Remember the song? Respect for all life… including rocks.) It’s sad to think that this fundamental desirable quality, respect, is not something that is automatically part of dally life. The need to mark territory rather than respect nature shows lack of consideration.
Unfortunately, this lack of consideration exists in many areas. On Friday, I stopped at one of our local veterinarians and met a friend who was picking up her dog. She told me that her neighbor’s boyfriend had hit the dog with his car. My friend’s house is on a blind curve. Her dog is always inside his little gated area and only is out a very short time when the area is being cleaned. During this time he is usually in the backyard area. On the day that the dog was hit, there was extra noise from fire trucks, which made the dog a little nervous. The neighbors involved have always driven too fast (killing wildlife, and nearly hitting me while I was walking up to see my friend). My friend said she was responsible because there is a leash law and he wasn’t on the leash at the time.
I think that is very admirable of her to take the responsibility. However, the same neighbors’ family have dogs that are never leashed and lie all over the road. (Interesting how they expect others to drive around their dogs.) This isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong. It’s about respect. If one respects the road and realizes that there may be people or animals crossing, then one will automatically slow down. Plus the fact that the area where this occurred is a blind curve marked 15 miles per hour and the car was going “Pacific Coast Highway speed.” Regrettably, they did not even have enough respect to ask how the dog was doing!
Incidentally, an incident like this happened in another area of Malibu approximately six years ago. The neighbor who hit the dog that time, not only stopped and helped get the dog to the veterinarian but also paid for some of the expenses. All that my friend wanted was to have them ask her how the dog was doing, in this way showing respect for the life of her dog! All of life is worthy of respect.
Another bit of respect for your neighbors could also be manifested by not doing noisy gardening on a Sunday! Bad enough the gardeners still use gas blowers, and most of June is constant weed whacking noise, at least give us peaceful Sundays!
Trying to be a considerate neighbor takes effort – but what a wonderful neighborhood it can be when we can take the time to check to see if our lights are on too bright, if the noise level is too high, to stop our car to let a person or animal have the right of way, drive slow and enjoy the view or take the time to smile and wave. It starts with one person at a time caring and taking the action!-One neighborhood at a time -eventually a congenial Malibu? I hope so!
Sandra Rosenthal