Violence brought to our community by who?!

November 12, 2007 in Crime, Missoula

by jhwygirl

That headline might seem harsh – and by now you have all heard of the arrest of three FIVE Griz football players for felony kidnapping, assault with a weapon, and robbery charges.

At least one local television station is reporting that the charges stem from an incident in the early morning hours last Monday at a home at the corner of Sixth and Arthur. In that incident, five or six suspects entered the home, zapped one resident with a taser gun and pistol whipped another.

With the 3 arrests, presumably the police are still looking for the others.

Yesterday I blogged about the random violent attacks that have been plaguing our community – some of if anti-gay.

Today I pondered these recent arrests and considered this: At least six EIGHT UM football players have been arrested this year alone. Some very serious charges – one was for murder, and a second was arrested as having witnessed the crime and remaining uncooperative in the investigation.

I ponder about what kind of people is Hauck recruiting? What kind of people does he have recruiting for him? At what price does he – and his supporters – want to win? Does he go to these guys homes? Does he meet their parent(s)? Their families? Does he even care?

Because some of what we are seeing here in our community – the violence that some of these team members have brought upon us – should be evident in school records, in family involvement (or not), in church and community organizations in the neighborhoods where these guys came from, and in the outward character of the young men (I use that term very loosely) themselves.

Is Bobby Hauck even capable of judging character?

It has been said that “It takes a village to raise a child.” That statement is true – while a parent and the family holds the greatest responsibility, the community also has a certain responsibility in seeing that its children are behaving under a certain code of mores and behaviors.

When I was young too many years ago, and me and my brothers and the neighborhood kids would get together, we knew that if we got out of hand – whether it was running our bikes through the neighbors yards, or piling on one of the younger ones in dodgeball – we knew that we risked the wrath of any number of neighbors who would call our parents and let them know that we were getting out of hand. And then the call would go from my parent to the other parents, and we’d all be in a steamin’ old pile of doggie do-do.

In Missoula’s case, it seems, we’ve got a group of children who aren’t behaving well – and some of these behaviors, I feel, aren’t the type of qualities we want for our community, for our University, for our team.

Hauck and the rest of the Griz team need to be called out for this and recent undesirable behaviors. These activities are not the folly of young men – as Dennison might want to have us believe – and before anyone in that athletic department begins to recruit players to bring them to this town to play for our Griz, changes need to be made.

Now.

They (the University, Hauck) can get on TV, they can apologize, they can talk about how embarassed they are – but keep in mind – the warning signs were there with the drug charges, with the DUI’s, with the murder, with the team member who didn’t think enough of his involvement with the Griz to cooperate in the investigation of that murder….none of this bodes well not only for the team, but for the University itself. It shows a very poor lack of judgment and inability to assess character.

Now it’s time for the community to put in a call to the University and tell them to clean house. We can’t have this in our neighborhoods. It is not acceptable.

An Annual Tradition for Montana Bloggers

November 12, 2007 in Blogs, Mountain Blogs

by jhwygirl

Last year, Matt from Left in the West and Craig from MTPolitics joined together for the worthy cause of helping feed the hungry. A total of $1,600 was raised last year to help fund the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN).

Well, the guys are at it again this year, and as Craig points out, bloggers from both sides of the blogsphere came together. Let’s do that again, folks.

The MFBN is a private non-profit, founded in 1983 to help feed families across Montana. They have pantries all over the state.

You can have some fun in the process – MFBN is kicking off this giving season with a Groove & Give event at the Badlander this Friday, November 16th. Local R&B band Zeppo MT is playing. $5 at the door gets you in – and buy a raffle ticket and get a chance at a new 8 GB iPod.

Follow this link to donate to the Montana bloggers fund for the MFBN.

A newer Missoula blog you all should read

November 12, 2007 in Blogs

by jhwygirl

I’ve mentioned this on in my comments some time back, but I want to highlight it today as I’ve come to really enjoy the fresh look it takes at the City of Missoula.

Daniel Nairn – I’ve never met – writes on The Garden City over at his blog Discovering Urbanism. He’s been at it quite a while (since August), and a perusal through his archives, I promise, will be well worth it.

Some of his recent pieces include a piece on Missoula’s recent sharrows – Thoughts on Sharing the Road. Another explores the issues that arise when community becomes, in and of itself, a hot investment. He takes on the idea that people are buying into concept versus reality in his piece titled Developing Rock Creek.

All of it is some great eye-wide-opened stuff. I’ve been loving it – I think you will too.