It's sad that it takes is a few break-ins to motivate people to form a Neighborhood Watch, to get people to know each other. The lament that neighbors don't know each other anymore gets truer each year, because society has become transitory and insular. While I sympathize strongly with the need for privacy, at least knowing the person/family who lives next door to you is useful in several instances. If somebody pulls up in a truck and starts loading electronics like computer, big-screen TV's - you want to know about it. If smoke starts pouring out of a house when no one's home - you want to know about it. A person who hasn't been seen in a while, accompanied by a bad odor emanating from the house - you want to know about it.
I often wonder how many crisises passed people by, unaware in their homes of what was going on outside. Being wired only goes so far. There comes a point where one has to observe firsthand their corner of the universe. Even events that are noticeable like earthquakes, tornadoes, Martian invasions, drive one to want to connect to someone, to find out what's going on, to get feedback.
Finally, connecting in some small way to your fellow man keeps us human. We aren't as isolated. Neighborhood Watches, done correctly, draw a neighborhood into an extended family, one that looks out for each other in a small way. Trust me, a "hello" over the fence, can go further than you think.
