I’m a part of a neighborhood website, which covers many neighborhoods in Austin and even has participation by Austin Police Department and Travis County Sheriff’s office.

One of the Travis County Constables posted a general “community service” message. In response, someone posted about a car break-in in their neighborhood, and from the sounds of it, it’s not an uncommon occurrence in their neighborhood. What got me was the closing sentence of their post:

We live here and we want to feel safe.

The tone of the posting was saying there’s a problem, we don’t feel safe, we want to feel safe, and what are YOU going to do about it?

While to a degree that’s understandable, I have issue with a few things.

First, you have to realize that your feelings don’t matter. What matters is reality.  Instead of living in a bubble that expects the world to be this ideal thing, accept the world is far from your ideal. That may not be the happiest way to look at things, but when you look at realities instead of falsehoods, you can accomplish more.

Second, why are you putting your safety on others? Why are others responsible for your safety? Why aren’t you responsible for your own safety? Why aren’t you rallying your neighbors to get more active and do something about the level of safety and crime in your neighborhood? Start a neighborhood watch. Talk with each other. Keep a watchful eye out for yourself and each other, to look for odd things going on. That doesn’t mean you have to get vigilante, but it’s about having awareness and being pro-active about your own well-being instead of expecting others to provide it.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t request help from local law enforcement. That’s part of their job, it’s part of what your tax dollars pay for. But realize there are only so many police in town and they cannot be everywhere. But you and your neighbors are there in your neighborhood, and you can and should take your own steps to help improve your conditions instead of expecting, waiting for, and being let-down by putting your safety and well-being in the hands of others.

And then, perhaps you’ll be able to feel safer, because you’ll know something is actively being done to actually make your neighborhood safer and have less crime. And you’ll probably even feel better about it, because that improvement is coming by your own hands.