"If not exactly 'tolerance,' it is certainly complicity..." and I certainly agree. By tolerating violence, verbal and physical abuse, and the slow destruction of "the commons" environmentalists claim to love, we are all accomplices. We are watching the slow destruction of our community, our social and business center. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing." When we look the other way, our city crumbles.

By tolerating disrespect, by excusing petty acts of destruction, by accepting that vagrancy, drug use, and delinquency are inevitable, we sign the death-warrant of our once-attractive city. My family no longer goes downtown. We no longer use the library, or the DAC. We rarely attend the Hult or eat downtown. We've been chased out, and I suspect we are not the only ones. If we fail to reclaim the safe, vital, attractive commons that is ours, we have only ourselves to blame when it is seized by the barbarians.