We are an unhealthy culture. Obesity has been called our greatest threat to national security. We are also a culture of noise. And noise is unhealthy as well. The noisemakers aren't limited to young Blacks playing profanity-laced Rap music or Latino low-riders with noisemakers attached to their mufflers. I've seen plenty of young White hillbangers with obnoxious pickup trucks make just as much noise.
"According to a 2011 study by the World Health Organization, 'Among environmental factors in Europe, environmental noise leads to a disease burden that is second in magnitude only to that from air pollution.' The study found that traffic-related noise 'accounts for over 1 million healthy years of life lost annually to ill health, disability or early death' in the areas studied. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, 'Problems related to noise include stress related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity.'" (Dan Nephin, LNP, Loud noise is more than a nuisance, 4/17/2022)
Loud music, loud voices, loud cars, loud chain saws and weed whackers, loud lawn mowers, loud dogs, loud guns at sportsmen's clubs, loud motorcycles, loud children, loud celebrations, Loudness is covered in the Constitution. It is our Constitutional Right under the First Amendment; our freedom of speech includes our right to be loud or in the case of firing ranges, our Second Amendment rights; a right to shoot 'em up bang bang.
I think the Quakers got this one right. I think our 1st Amendment protects our right to be loud; but it also protects our right to be quiet. Does it protect our rights from loudness?
We are loud in theaters, in restaurants; we are even loud while fishing. We are loud on cell phones and stand in front of homes at all hours to broadcast to the world our sexual fantasies and our disagreements in the boldest words you can imagine. Just as there has been a decline in the respect for private property, there has been a decline in respect for privacy except of course for the medical questions involving our underage children or the posting of a student's A+ school work on the classroom bulletin board. That's a HIPAA violation and the A+ is representative of meritocracy.
Americans are a loud people. That's how foreigners describe us when we visit their countries. They recognize us immediately by the loudness of our speech. Our noise has hegemonized the world. We don't use quiet diplomacy anymore. That's un-American. Today we use bigger fireworks; the same fireworks and gunfire that we used to condition our citizens but on a less dangerous scale.
Let's find a remedy for our loudness. Let's simply ask loud people doing loud things to tune it down. Here's your first eight challenges. If you survive after doing half of the following actions, you will have done your bit to combat loudness.
1. Find a Black kid playing his Rap music too loud and ask him to turn it down because you're offended by the profanity and use of the n-word. If you're lucky, someone from the community center will visit you and ask you to apologize for your racist remark before the kid retaliates. Remember don't make the Black kids angry or for that matter, any kids. That is one good thing that has come from the Millennial Generation; their lack of respect transcends racial lines.
2. Stop a Latino low rider driving his four-cylinder buzz saw and ask him to stop racing his motor up and down the street. Don't be surprised that the next morning there is MacDonald's trash on your front lawn and the driver's older brother sitting in his car in your driveway. He'll approach you and tell you that you've offended his family and that you have "no respeto."
3. Ask a Black kid with a pit bull on a long chain to stop him from barking. Make sure you stay away from the windows for the next few nights so you don't get hit by any stray bullets.
4. Stop at your local firing range, let's say the Atglen Sportsman's Club, on Sunday morning and ask the camo decked, American flag patched hefty White men shooters if they could stop firing until after lunch because they are disturbing the solace of the neighbors within a mile of the range. Don't be surprised if their greeting is, "Go F--- Yourself." It's their way of getting to know you.
5. Stop a Harley on the street and ask the bearded, black leather, White motorcycle club member not to rev his motor going passed your house because it scares your toddler. Don't be surprised if later in the day ten or twelve motorcycles show up and fill the neighborhood with smoke from burning tires. Don't go outside. You'll have to face these guys again later at supper time at the local American Legion.
6. Ask a mother in a restaurant sitting at the table next to you to take her crying child outside until he/she stops screaming. Make sure you have your lawyer's phone number handy as she calls 911 and says that a man is harassing her and threatening her child.
7. Ask the guy in the neighborhood not to shoot off fireworks illegally because it scares your dog, or horse, or your son suffering from PTSD since returning from Afghanistan.
8. Ask the gang of municipal workers to stop working on the street before the designated starting time. See how soon the code's officer pays you a visit for that cracked sidewalk in front of your house.
