“Never judge a stranger by its clothes.” — Zachary Taylor

I have heard people saying that Covid-19 brings out the worst in many people. We’ve all seen it or been victimized by it. From bullying, discrimination, to racism, you name it. I personally do not think the pandemic is to be blamed; I believe many people are simply using it to reveal their true personalities, to be true to themselves. What I have noticed the most, is the filth some people live in and the filth some of those individuals impose on others.

On Tuesday for instance, I watched as a child from a parked car ahead of me dropped a water bottle out the window and the grandmother acted like it was the norm. I quickly grabbed my phone and took a picture of the bottle and the license plate. Today, I watched as the child and her father exited the car, and the child dropped a small ziploc bag next to a stop sign. The father too, acted like it was acceptable, even as he saw me.

Unless told and thought otherwise, that child will grow to behave exactly like her parents and be stuck in an endless cycle of bad behavior.

I have seen many filthy individuals and I thought I had seen it all, until a few months ago, in August. One family moved into the neighborhood a few years ago and have been working hard to make the place to their liking (trash, bad odor, weed, dead trees, an uncontrolled dog that jumped a six foot fence into our backyard multiple times, and so much more). During their first week, they introduced weed to the neighborhood and by the end of that year they gifted us mosquitos from a filthy standing water they didn’t care to drain.

At first I thought they were perhaps coming from a disassembled community and didn’t know better. One afternoon on the second week of August, I decided to close a window in the patio that I had opened earlier that morning. I saw the neighbor’s husband of his roof, looking into my property as if he was searching for something. He looked all around him and then looked into my property one more time before walking towards his chimney. From there he unzipped his pants and urinated on his chimney; you could clearly see the stream of urine running through the chimney. Thinking that I may be seeing things, I called my son, who saw it too. Once he was done, he wiped his hands on his shirt and started cleaning pine needles off his roof. I don’t know why he chose to expose himself in such a lewd manner.

I was grossed out. How can someone defile his own property? I remembered how after each rain fall, I could smell the stench of urine, while walking in my backyard. It made no sense to me. I began thinking about the people I shook hands with in the past, the people I hired for some home repairs, the tools we borrowed from other neighbors when we just moved in, etc. I stopped shaking hands with people four years ago, opting for verbal greetings and sometimes a small bow. My kids know not to shake hands with anyone.

“Hygiene is two thirds of health.” — Lebanese Proverb

I understand that depending on our jobs, we cannot be clean at all times; however, there are things we shouldn’t do either like, shaking hands, sharing items, touching  things in common surfaces (faucets, door handles, light switches, electronics, and other commonly shared things), etc. Washing our hands as soon as we can and as often as we can with soap and water, or using hand sanitizer is one of the best things we can do for ourselves.

Be cautious around everyone and always practice cleanliness.

By JM Perez

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