From Individual Back to Community

I need to have a moment to vent.  Last night, I encountered an experience at work I never, ever want to encounter.  I had a customer call me about a rebate program offered by one of the utility's I work on.  She began asking me about an incentive.  Confused, I began explaining the program to her.  She went on to explain that she was suppose to go through one program but a contractor cancelled it.  They found out she wasn't going to purchase an expensive HVAC unit and called behind her back, cancelling the service she wanted.  She explained she had lost her husband and can't afford to install such expensive measures but doesn't think it is fair that we don't offer it.

Giving a hand...

If you can't see what I find appalling in this, let me explain: They were taking advantage of this older woman.  And she voiced that she was afraid to report them for fear of retaliation.  "I don't want my house to blow up with me inside of it," she told me.

My heart breaks for this woman.  She will be in my prayers for peace and protection.  But it makes me mad that both women and the elderly get taken advantage of, even in this modern time.  How is it fair or right for the world to treat our elders and that of the sex responsible for bringing us into this world?

We are the only ones we have in this world.  We only have each other.  If we don't look out for one another, who will?  If we aren't worth protecting, what motivation does the army have for looking over us?  If we don't feel a sense of ownership for our neighbors and what is morally right, what incentive does the government have to look for our best interests?  How can we be protected if we don't protect each other as a first defense?

This morning, my fiance, his son and I had to go and have my oil changed in my car.  It has been long overdue for that service.  On our way out of town, we came across two accidents.  The first had already been mostly cleaned up, the people already whisked away for medical examination.  The second was fresh.  The people from the cars were out there, directing traffic and helping guide people around the collision until the police officers and other first responders arrived.  There had even been strangers, uninvolved in the accident, had pulled over to help figure out the mess until the police could come and take over.

All of us together make the world go 'round.

This is a prime example of how we should be trying to help each other out in this world.  Too often, we get involved in our own worlds and forget to see those around us.  I know there have been a few occasions when I wanted to help.  But we also have to consider that not everyone who seems in distress is truly in need and rather, a predator themselves.  There are accounts of women, stopping to help a motorist on the side of the road, only to be abducted.

What kind of world do we live in that we have to fear our fellow man, rather than take a community approach?  It use to be that it took a village to raise a child.  Now, the village is the enemy of the child, not its protector.  Perhaps it is about time to go back to the only way of thinking.  A sense of community, a sense of protection, a sense of family.