Wise words, and more people in this life should remember them. I for one do my best to live by them, and for the most part I have been successful.
I will be up front and say that this blog entry is based on second-hand information, yet it is still worthy of a learning experience.
Okay, so it was Friday afternoon and I was pulling up to my Western Home and I noticed three things strange, yet I persisted anyways.
The first strange thing was that the Big Box Retail Store parking lot that I usually park in was full of various RV units, even the regulars.
The second was that the Empty Big Box Store’s parking lot was empty, except for my lone “canary.”
The third was that a large tow truck was parked in the Empty Big Box Store’s parking lot, with its lights on (and perhaps engine running).
Since my canary was there, I decided to risk it and park in the Empty Big Box Store’s parking lot anyways. I could always move if someone told me to; I always have.
This Empty Big Box Store is located right next to Big Box Store that I usually shop in and used to park in.
The Empty Big Box Store has been vacant for months, since the dead of winter, made known by the fact that their parking lot lamps turn on at 4 in the afternoon and turn off at 10 in the morning (approximately).
So, with the Big Box Store that I usually shop in having a snit fit and kicking everyone out, naturally people gravitated over here to the Empty Big Box Store.
Apparently either on Thursday or Friday, the manager/owner/person responsible for the Empty Big Box Store came out to finally cut the power to the store.
This is understandable as I have heard that a few people had found a few forlorn power plugs that still worked and were making use of them.
This individual, whom we will call the Property Manager (though I do not know who they were or their actual job title) came out swinging.
The Property Manager was demanding that everyone leave right now and that they were going to tow those who didn’t and put up large barricades.
One of the regulars apparently claimed some sort of squatter’s rights, and shouted that they had a right to be there, etc.
This highlights two things wrong with this picture. The first is that if you come out swinging and shouting, generally taking a combative stance, you will evoke a combative response.
This also bring up the other point, the parking lot that all of us, were parked on was private property, owned by some company for the purpose of retail (as in business).
Sure, I take up a few spaces, but I do so at the edge of the large parking lot, generally where nobody wants to park in anyways, and in return I shop at that store.
I stay for a few days, generally for the weekend the longest is for a long weekend. I fully understand that it is a privledge, not a right to be there.
So, the Property Manager had every right to kick everyone out, just as the Big Box Retail Store that I usually park in had the right to do the same, it is their property.
Even when I am parking on a street I have no right to be there, it is a city owned street, so it belongs to everyone and no one.
I always conduct myself, wherever I am, as if I am a guest on someone else’s land.
I suppose that’s why owning land and a large amount of it means so much to me. It would mean that I finally have a place to belong and a place to set down roots . . . but I digress.
If the Property Manager had (and might have, I don’t know because I wasn’t there) had said . . .
“Look, I can’t have you people here, so you can stay tonight but I need you gone in the morning, if you’re still here tomorrow night, I will have to have you towed,”
They probably would have gotten a much better response and people would have been less likely to get angry in their face and get angry back.
People living in RV’s and vehicles, for the most part are not there by choice, or rather, it is not their first choice.
There are some who choose to live in RV’s (like me) but for the most part it is poverty that has shoved them into this lifestyle.
At the end of the day, people are people who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect until their conduct demands otherwise.
This is irrespective of if the person is a Property Manager, or lives in an RV/vehicle.
As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!
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