Thread: The rules never apply, do they?

I have not started a thread here for a while, life has been a bit complicated, but I finally had a chance to sit down for a few minutes, so I thought I might share some thoughts and observations.

We have been lucky enough to get a brand new landlord, he bought the complex we live in a bit over a month ago, usurping the former slumlord from his perch.

This new landlord I believe is a legal immigrant, who apparently has been here for a long time, his accent has softened, but I do believe he might be from India. He is determined to turn these places around. He seems genuine about it, and has been issuing notices about things such as the massive trash situation (35 unit complex dumpster has to be emptied now three times a week), which he dealt with by upping the rent a tad.

Now with summer here, and the advent of non-rain soaked NW days, our illegal neighbors will be seen washing their cars two to three times a day. This has obviously received much attention by the landlord who stated there will be NO car washing, and no running of hoses other than to fill a childs pool, or to water flowers, or something else necessary, but he was very specific on the no car washing. We can all understand.

However, it seems our neighbors think that the rules do not apply to them, only to us Americans. Here's the story.

Three days ago, my friend stopped by and her son proceeded to start washing down her car with just the hose, I did not know, but the maintenance man (ehem...he is possibly legal, but has an "allegiance") came over to politely mention this to my friends son. He turned off the water, as the maintenance man told them he had forgot to tell us, but had already informed the rest of the tenants.

Last night my son was out about 9 pm, watering my flowers I had just bravely invested in (each time we have done this they were ruined by the former maintenance guy, who weed-whacked them all, and also the landlords wife who took her killer hoe to them also, she said they were weeds!!). The next door neighbor (who BTW, was that former maintenance man!!) came barreling over to our son, and started yelling at him, of course it was almost all in Spanish, and what little was not, the jest of it was that WE were not supposed to use ANY water, and not even for our flowers.

Well this same man has his daughters boyfriend living with them (the father of her baby) and this guy is dutifully out there day and night washing his car. My husband approached him on this, and told him not to talk to our son again, but to talk to us, and then he asked him why it is not ok, in his mind, for us to have any outside use of the water, yet they can justify using it to wash a car when there are plenty of car washes available. The neighbor shook his head and said "NO", and my husband said then it is ok for us to use the outside water for our garden, again this man said "NO".

Enough said my husband decided and he called the landlord, settled the issue and explained this has been a longstanding issue that the other landlord perpetuated by allowing all of these people to do as they pleased, but holding us to a different standard, well...to the normal rules of the complex.

With that matter over, I realized how often this goes on all over this country. Illegal aliens are given the gold pass to do as they please, while American citizens are held to the laws. An illegal alien drives drunk and is caught, well his car is taken, he is booked into jail, but them released the very next day. An American citizen drives drunk......well his car is towed, he is booked in jail, he is fined, he has to pay the fine, he may have to make bail, then there is court, or he will be sought out by the sheriffs office on a warrant.

Hmmmm......double standards, I have seen it up close (although it is changing for us here, it does not feel fast enough), and I am sure you all have too.

It is so very sad but so very true. There are two sets of rules in this country-one for illegals and one for Americans and legal citizens.

They enter the country illegally, commit ID theft and are given jobs, welfare, health care, freebies galore not only from the US taxpayer but non-profit groups, churches etc.

Could you imagine if an American commited ID theft? I thought we were supposed to be cracking down on ID theft? Haven't laws been passed recently for this?

I of course do not plan on doing anything, but I have often said if I was ever charged with a crime I should have my legal team use the defense that I should be able to go free because our government arbitrarily chooses which laws to enforce.

I have also thought about the hospital as well. Last year I went to the ER and was admitted to the hospital for gallstones and a shrivvled/infected gallbladder. My husband works for a major insurance company and if you use the ER you have a $1000 deductible penalty and 25% penalty on top of what you normally pay(which is a lot). This does not matter if you go to the ER for a heart attack-which is what I thought was happening.

Any way I am rambling. I think back now maybe I should have given them a fake name and told them I had no insurance. I would tell them that they have no right to ask me for my legal status. Then I could have received my 5 day hospital stay for free. Maybe they would have even upgraded me to a private room?

Nicole