Gentlemen/ A letter

I was taking a walk to South Orange today when a couple of thoughts came to me. Where have all the gentlemen gone and why is there such a significant difference between Newark and South Orange?

While I was walking, I noticed that I am more of a gentleman than the men in my neighborhood. When I walk and I see someone walking in my direction, I move over a bit so that person can have room on the sidewalk. Now, when I move to one side, I expect the other person to move over on the other side so that we both can have the same amount of space to walk by. I walked by an older woman, I moved- she moved. I walked by two women walking together, I moved-they moved. I walked by a man, I moved- he stayed and almost bumped into me. Seriously, Dude? You're not going to extend the courtesy of moving over an inch so that I can walk by without having to side-step my way past you?

Jerk!

I have walked past men who spit right in front of me. They do cat calls, they scratch, they stare. They just have no respect.

Talking about no respect. I noticed that S.O is so much cleaner than Newark is and that is mostly because people have no respect for this place that was once such a great city. In my school days, I was always going over to my friends' houses because none of them wanted to come to Newark. This place has a bad rep and people think the worst. It came to a point where I didn't want to tell people I went to school with that I live in Newark. I don't want to be ashamed of where I'm from because some idiots don't know how to be civil. Here is what I have to say:

A Letter from one Newark Resident to another:

Dear Res,
Newark is your home. Treasure it. Love it. Would you invite someone to your home when you know that you don't keep it clean? Do you want people to point to your home and say "That is the lace where the dirty people/stupid people/violent people/crazy people live"? I don't think so.

Clean your home. Take pride in your home. Take advantage of all the wonderful things that you home has to offer. There's life here. There's art here. There's culture here. There's education here. There's hope here. You're here. Turn Newark into a place in which you would be proud to live.

Your Neighbor,
Reg