Opa Locka Saggy Pants Ordinance

The following are my own personal opinions and rationale reflected from a discussion on Power 96's Morning Show regarding Opa Locka's ordinance banning the wearing of saggy pants.

Anyway, I'm all for the ordinance they passed a little disturbed that the mayor was the only one that voted against it because he doesn't want to "legislate morality". I mean, isn't that what we have laws and codes of conduct for? To maintain morality, order and decency. Maybe some people have lost touch with this. Wait... they have.

Then someone mentioned about the right to FREEDOM of EXPRESSION. Yes, we have that right. Yes, we're entitled to it. However, what exactly are people that wear their pants so low trying to express? It shows they don't know how to wear clothes, they're too lazy to wear clothes properly, they're rebelious- "it shows individualism". Individualism is shown when you're different from the majority- in other words, if everyone is wearing their pants off their bottom and you're doing the same- you're no different! Please, expression is through character but being such a distraction hides the person and frankly, I don't know many people that will take such persons seriously.

Lastly, for the ones calling in offended that judgment is passed on persons dressing like such- how they feel that just because a person is wearing pants below their bottom doesn't mean their a bad person. You're absolutely right. Just because you wear saggy pants doesn't mean you're a bad person. However, I am certain that persons that continue to dress like that way past childhood and adolescents- will NOT get far. The way we dress is part of our social identity- how we view ourselves and how others view us. I'm begining to sound redundant. Some actually believe you can get far in life wearing baggy pants- WRONG! Sure some will argue- look at the rappers and the athletes...even with them my point is valid. You won't see P.Diddy or Jay-Z walking into a board meeting with their pants hanging off their bottom. Matter of fact, you rarely see them dressed so sluggishly. This is only to rationalize the hip-hop genre. Look at the rest of the world that isn't in the entertainment industry. Can you imagine the President of the United States representing our country sporting a pair of saggy jeans or the minister/preist of a church conducting sermons in a place of worship with his boxers showing out of his pants? How seriously would you take them?

Actually, that just brought a valid question that might help some... How many people go to church dressed like this? I'm about 90% sure that most wear proper slacks and a tucked in shirt because it would be inappropriate to go into a place of worship dressed like that. Right? So what, are the views of saggy pants now hypocritical?

I just want people to see the good in this ordinance and the potential positive effect it will have on the communities within Opa Locka. While it might not seem as something so important as muggings or other crimes- it's part of the root of the problems with those crimes.

If how you dress is part of who you are as a person- then you're attitude and choices in life are reflected by it as well. If a person dresses decently then there are less chances of that person acting indecently. That's why role model and dress for success programs are implemented in a lot of schools- psychological influencing to be something better. Granted there are criminals in 3-piece suits but those criminals are apart of more white collar crimes. They aren't the types of criminals stealing cars, breaking into houses, mugging people or the other types of petty crimes that conflict Opa Locka.

Anyway, I have to stop somewhere. I hope this made some sense and that people can actually give it some credit. There's always a root of a problem- whehter some would like to believe it or not- this is a really good place to start. There's nothing wrong with looking respectable and decent. I bet if some tried- they'd actually might like themselves better and eventually develop a better outlook on life.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

A Little Cynicism

It's been said that one of the best forms of communication are by experiences and feelings, mostly because they lack a descriminative bias from others. They are something evoked within us, something true and although its truth could even be debated think of it this way, could someone make you love something you didn't? And, can someone tell you otherwise about something you already lived?

As I was doing some recreational reading (something I usually tend to stir away from) I came across a verse that just grabbed me.

"Feeling is the language of the soul. If you want to know what's true for you about something, look to how you're feeling about it. Feelings are sometimes difficult to discover- and often even more difficult to acknowledge. Yet hidden in your deepest feelings is your highest truth."

I think I may have read this through and through- it only left me to wonder if this were the case with both bad and good feelings. You know, the feelings that give inspiration, hope, joy and happiness. Also the feelings that bring negativity, uncertainty and sadness.

How much truth can we find in them? What if how we feel about something doesn't coincide with the reality of it? Or if something for just a moment something produced such an innocent and sweet feeling and the next just the opposite- which one tells the truth?

Is it this very thing that I'm pondering- the cause for people not to trust in their feelings? Right now I feel like such a person which is the very contradiction of who I am. This leads me to the other form of communication- experiences.

I don't know how many times I've heard or read how our experiences teach us, how they help us grow and how they're such fundamental tools in learning- yet at this very moment I question if I learned the right things from mine. Especially if my experiences seem to carry a repetitious familiarity. It begins to feel like deja vu.

I've heard that "your experience and feelings about a thing represent what you factually and intuitively know about that thing." For the most part I've believed this as my own for a long time. I've trusted in my intuition and even more myself.

Yet my preaching of honesty, vulnerability and trust within the self has got me nowhere except here...