Quiet please!

A family friend forwarded an e-mail recently following the release of Time Magazine's "Are you mom enough" cover photo of a mother breast feeding a toddler. The e-mail this educated, worldly, and successful business executive sent contained a parody of the Time cover showing President Obama suckling on George Clooney with some commentary on the fundraising event Clooney held for the president's reelection campaign. It was a sophomoric joke at best which I could have deleted and forgotten knowing that the sender and I are simply of different political persuations. However, it is not the politics I object to as much as the mean spirit behind the jokes and the assumption that I would automatically agree with the content. I realize the irony of my indignation given my appreciation for a good Governor Palin joke or President Bush quote; "I've been misunderestimated" is one of my favorites. In this instance I opted for a polite and matter of fact reply to the sender requesting that he not forward any more e-mails of this nature for the simple reason that no response would indicate implicit agreement with the content and/or the context. Yesterday a neighbor had their first pool party of the season. This neighbor's property is adjacent to our development and therefore not subject to the HOA. Their parties are dreaded events for those of us in the vicinity. Ordinarily I really don't care about my neighbors musical preferences, but when the walls in our home vibrate from the bass and the kids can clearly make out Snoop Dog's lyrics from inside the house, I get upset. So we do what all the neighbors do every year and call the cops who patiently explain that there is nothing they can do until 10:00 PM; and even then, all they can do is ask these folks to turn the music down. I tried a different angle this time and asked if we had any recourse given the profanity but all we can do is press charges which comes at a high, high cost. I'm all for free speech, but I feel very strongly about the kids being exposed to mysoginistic and belligerant garbage in our home. Nothing can be done through official channels and even if there was, the neighbors are politically connected. The kids were surprised when we called the police; they were shocked that nothing could be done. In this case, I could not reply to sender with a polite note. It is getting more and more difficult to disconnect from the noise pollution influx of angry, racist, sexist and hateful speech. The officer we spoke with explained that profanity is subjective; Larry Flynt would be very proud. Really, some of the lyrics contained words my kids have not heard me utter even in the heaviest of traffic... Yesterday morning our church held a lovely Pentecost service complete with baptisms and confirmations. We came home once again refreshed and in awe of all the good we are blessed to witness. As our day came to a close Jake and I were literally red with anger and had a discussion about how is it even possible to love the unlovable neighbors. We also spoke about our social responsibility in terms of the noise. I refuse to accept that there is no recourse; how is it possible that it is acceptable to expose kids to pornographic material in audible form, in their home, and despite the objections of their parents? It will take some time to research, but I will find out. Ⓒ 2012 Patricia Vivó-Aucoin