Actually it does hurt someone. It hurts me when I am walking down that same street at about the same time you are and I see you cross the street to avoid walking beside me or check my position and actions over your shoulder every few seconds.
I understand your point of view, I’ve been in situations where I had fears of being attacked on the street at night. I went to school downtown in a large metro area for my first couple of years of High School. I would often not leave to catch the bus home until after play rehersals and that would leave me catching the bus across town after 11, and that route ran through some pretty bad neighborhoods before reaching the suburbs, they changed the route after a certain time so less busses could service the same area and they could send most of the drivers home for the night. I had to walk seven city blocks to catch this bus and there were often strangers on the street who were there because they were vagrant or drunk. This didn’t stop when I got on the bus either and I was accosted more than once by a drunken passanger because I was wearing the school uniform and they took that to mean I was a spoiled rich kid who, of course, was the source of all their problems and they could vent to/at me(the advances from one mostly-toothless and inebriated lady were particularly disturbing and are still vivid over ten years after the event). It didn’t alleviate my fears at all to be six foot tall and built like a tank,(football practice until six then play rehersal till 10, stay afterward and clean up and remove all the scenery because we didn’t have a dedicated stage would take the extra time after 10) the fear was still there. What good are muscles against guns and knives?
I believe I understand your fears AotL. And I will not dispute your right to these fears or your right to be concerned over the possibility that your roommate’s actions could bring(unintentional, but possibly severe) harm to you both. But I also believe I understand the point of view of the people who are taking exception to broad statements made about categories of people that they happen to belong to. They are feeling the same thing that I do when I see a woman cross the street to avoid me at night. An unreasoning sense of anger that she would assume I would be dangerous to her simply because she couldn’t tell me from Adam, even though I would sooner throw myself in front of bus than harm her. I am not asking you to trust everyone by default,(and I do not advocate giving up your protective habits, I am a father of two daughters and I plan to instill a healthy sense of caution in them) all I am asking is that you try to be a little more sensitive to general statements, especially ones which include almost half the population of the planet. Is that reasonable?
Steven
) Then (and usually only then) I become more cautious and “paranoid”. That feeling of “paranoia” won’t change for most of us. And I don’t think it should, unless society all of a sudden turns into a crime-free utopia.