I am a reasonably intelligent man; had a decent education and have tried to continue to grow myself throughout my life. And just by being here I have absorbed a fair amount of knowledge. Despite this, there are a great number of things I still do not understand. To be fair to myself, a lot I don\u2019t know is due more to just not ever having been exposed to the structural information on the subject. For example, this blog: I do not understand the coding mechanics of my posts \u2013 HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. I use a software called WordPress that allows me basically point and click or drag and drop to format my pages into the finished product. For each post, I write in a word document such as Word, then merely copy and paste my text into the web-based program. Then merely select and upload a photo, and a few small other steps, and done. But there is a huge amount of \u201cprogramming\u201d language hidden behind these steps that I do not understand \u2013 at least yet. Maybe someday I will take the time to learn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the case I used as my example, the reason I do not know it or understand it is a fundamental one: I have never studied it, never experienced it, never been taught it. Like geometry \u2013 if you never take classes on geometry you\u2019ll likely never understand the subject. But other things, like language, can be learned without a class and without a book; kids learn to speak their native language all across the world without a book or lessons. And that is because they learn from their parents, their siblings, and their friends; daily life becomes their classroom. Much the same with things like personal hygiene or eating and drinking \u2013 we learn the mechanics through our daily life and we finesse the nuances as we grow in accordance to our personal preferences \u2013 style and taste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what of kindness? What of treating others with respect? I personally think it\u2019s both; we learn our foundational skills at home with our friends and family but then go on to learned the refined aspects of social behavior in a classroom setting where most everyone is (initially) a stranger, including the teacher. There we learn about the social skills intended to carry us through life. We respect the thoughts and feeling of others, we listen when they speak, and we help them when they are in difficulty. Yes, kids tease and laugh at each other, but that is child\u2019s play and most often, when it matters, they support and protect each other. The Golden Rule, rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened? What changed in our world that it is not just permissible to devalue a human life, it is the standard? What happened to decency and decorum? What happened to respect? To hearing a different opinion and trying to understand it instead of immediately dismissing it and automatically detesting it? The more I witness in my daily life lately, the more I am reminded that the fabric of our societal decency is torn, tattered, and tatterdemalion. It is in shreds. Watching, listening, and observing the ever-growing chasm between the Us and Them, the Red and the Blue, the Democrats and the Republicans has left me shaking my head. Lines are drawn in the sand by both sides without regard for facts and the masses crowd those lines on their respective sides daring the other side to cross it. There is no tolerance for an opposing view at all, but worse, there is now no tolerance for the people who hold that view. It is no longer just the thought, the idea, the opinion, or the perspective. It is now also the person that holds or expressed that view. There is some small shred of social decorum remaining in some pockets in that the opposing sides still consider their opponents \u201cthe enemy\u201d but out of the few morsels of social graces left, the opponents are wrong because they are uninformed and have their head in the sand \u2013 they aren\u2019t really seeing the truth, the facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
People now seem to refuse to believe,\nnever mind accept, that there are always two sides to an issue (at least two\nsides, often more). There is no ability within them to allow for an opposing\nview. And lately there is no room in their hearts for tolerating people who\nhold the opposing view; in fact, it is rapidly deteriorating into hate and detest\nfor those people. There is now head-shaking disbelief in the incredible lack of\nintelligence and morals of the other side. We are a society running on either full\nthrottle or hard brakes with nothing in between. All the posts I\u2019ve written on the\nhues of our deserts, the blend of our souls, the balance in the universe are (seemingly)\nbeing simultaneously disproven in the blink of an eye; we are now yes or no,\nhot or cold, black or white with no middle ground. And we give no quarter to\nthose who disagree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little better demonstrates this than the political chaos currently pulverizing our collective decency. It has become so polarized and so occluded with misinformation that most of the country is in mass hysteria blindly supporting their side and attacking the other. This holds true from the local diner up through the media and right into the (formerly) sacred halls of our nation\u2019s government. I detest what both sides have done to our constitutional process, our objectivity, our national sense of decency, and our ability to discern right from wrong. And more than that, our ability to not just tolerate, but respect and accept opposing perspectives. It is no longer about right from wrong or about facts, it is now about \u201cmy side\u201d or the “wrong side”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That same manifestation of intolerance\nhas now spilled into local politics here in my small town. There has been a sudden\nappearance of panhandlers in a few intersections. Not a new concept, there have\nbeen beggars going back almost as long as man has been on this blue marble. And\nthey have been omnipresent in our major cities for as far back as I recall. But\nin our small town, their appearance is sudden and new. And it was recently discovered,\nand then widely publicized, that one of these people is a convicted sex\noffender. And that drove this community wild, especially on Facebook where any\npost on the panhandlers, and this one person in particular, generated massive\nwaves of comments which invariably would result in moderators shutting down the\npost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, the tide was overwhelmingly against the panhandlers and how they should be removed, banned, and even arrested; especially the sex offender. But he has disappeared, not been seen in weeks if not months, but there are others and people continue to rail against them on Facebook: \u201cthey should get a real job\u201d, \u201cstop giving them money and they\u2019ll go away\u201d, \u201csend them to Boston\u201d, and similar comments. But a precious few have dared to pick up the sword of opposition and raise it to the masses and are attempting to defend the panhandlers. And they are being publicly crucified for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, we\u2019ve all heard stories of people\nwho earn a living, an extremely prolific living, at panhandling. How widespread\nand true that is, I don\u2019t know. I think it is by far the exception rather than\nthe rule. But there are certainly people who do quite well at it. And that rankles\na lot of people, envy probably. Money for nothing, or so perceived. Actually\nthe weather plays into the \u201cjob\u201d as does personal pride. I think I would beg if\nI had to, but I would absolutely hate it and it would be a last choice. But a\nchoice none the less. And that is where I believe these folks are at in my\nsmall town; doing it because they have no other resource. I don\u2019t know any of their\nstories, what led them here and why they had to resort to begging. I don\u2019t hate\nthem for it, but others certainly seem to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a thought among some locals that they general populace detests the panhandlers so much because they don\u2019t want their \u201cprestigious\u201d town devalued by the openly abject impoverished beggars; if there are those with less money, in trouble, drowning even, that those folks do so behind the scenes in the social service system and out of sight. \u00a0These are people for whom appearance is all and they wish the panhandlers would go because it lends the appearance that their town is not all wealth and prosperity (which of course, no town is). And to these same people, if you think that way, you are clearly deranged and have your head up your ass. You are a bleeding heart who has been sucked into the scam of these con artists and are doing little more than giving them a good living off your money; you’re a dunce and have been duped and don’t know your ass from your elbow. That sort of thing….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there has been a slow and gradual\ngroundswell of people speaking out on behalf of the panhandlers, not so much defending\nthe begging, but that they might well have a valid reason to be on that\nintersection desperately seeking any meager money by way of the public\u2019s collective\ncharity. And these kindhearted people are now being attacked as \u201cbleeding heart\nliberals\u201d, as socialistic leftists (this coming from people who live in about\nas Democratic a state possible), and as softies who are enabling these con artists\nto bilk us with their sad faces and cardboard signs asking for help and mercy.\nImagine. (Editorial note here: I was first tempted to punctuate that with a\nquestion mark, then an exclamation mark, and ended up satisficing with a\nperiod.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes. People are being attacked in a public forum for suggesting that perhaps yelling \u201cgo get a job\u201d and loading the panhandlers into a truck bound for Boston are not the best methods of helping these people. In fact, they are being attacked for even suggesting these people deserve help as most seem convinced that they are scamming the public: \u201csaw one of them drinking a Starbucks coffee\u201d said one; \u201che smokes $10 per pack cigarettes\u201d said another. So apparently if a kind soul bought an extra Starbucks coffee and handed it to a panhandler on their way by means that they don\u2019t need help, aren\u2019t in need. And I guess the strongest addiction in the world \u2013 nicotine \u2013 should vanish once you become impoverished!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My point is, the vocal majority has\ndecided amongst themselves that these panhandlers are scam artists trying con\nthe hard-working people of this town to give them money. They refuse to believe\nor acknowledge that these people, or at least some of them, are in actual\ndesperate need of help. And they wish they would go away so they don\u2019t have to\nsee them. And perhaps that is the problem; they don\u2019t wish to face the fact\nthat there are people in need, people in trouble, people who need help living in\ntheir town. And I guess I can understand that; it\u2019s uncomfortable and people would\nrather not face it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But. It\u2019s one thing to be uncomfortable with something and wish not to face it. It is quite another though, to attack people who stand up for the panhandlers \u2013 to call them names and ridicule them. But that is exactly where we are at in this world. Social decency, humanity, has eroded to the extent that we bully people who take an opposing view from our own. And that behavior is rather widely accepted. To be fair, there are those who are expressing sadness and displeasure with the verbal attacks on those who speak on behalf of the opposing perspective. But then they too are attacked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is too soon to know how this\npanhandling issue will be resolved in this little town in which I live. And\nfrankly, given today\u2019s global economy, I am fairly certain it will not go away \u2013\nthe problem that is. Those with the money and the power and the distaste of seeing\nbeggars may well manage to make them go away; at least for the short term. And\nthe Facebook social committee will move on to other topics that upset their sensibilities.\nAnd those who dare take the opposing view will be vilified for doing so. And\nthat is just sad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to remember that just because I disagree does not mean I don\u2019t like you. I can hold an opposing view on something and still think you are an awesome person. Taking an opposing view does not diminish you as a person to me. This is the land of the free, where I may not agree with your opinion but I will die to protect your right to speak it. Where have we gone? Where have we lost our way? When did it become all right to verbally attack a person because they disagree? We need to begin standing up for those who are attacked for disagreeing. We need to remind people that folks have the right to disagree and calling them names and bullying them is not proper or acceptable behavior. Yes, it is only Facebook. But this same attitude, this mode of behavior, is being manifested elsewhere in society, especially on the roads. It is slowly and imperceptibly infiltrating most all of our social interactions and is pervasively eroding our social conscience, enabling increasingly poor behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A doom and gloom post? Not at all. But you can\u2019t begin to repair something until you first admit it is not working right. We, society in general, are slipping down a path that will not end well for us. And until and unless we first admit that, we can\u2019t begin to correct our direction. And there will be those who will vilify and attack me for this, just as there are those who attack people who point out that panhandling is a real thing propagated by a genuine need by some people. It is far easier to stick one\u2019s head in the sand to ignore the problem than to admit it exists. In this case, I am a tiny voice, essentially imperceptible in the noise of the world. The tiniest of a ripple in an ocean filled with waves. But I have to try; my social conscience dictates nothing less. I have to speak up and hope that the precious few who choose to read my words and take the time to consider them, share a common belief in dignity and respect and in the fact that there are two sides to every issue, and that we all have the right to take one side or the other without fear of ridicule. And those who do, heed these words I\u2019ve offered and choose to do their little part each day: smile, speak kindly, be considerate, be nice, and follow the Golden Rule. And little by little, day by day, this world, this society, will change once again to embrace those values. Don\u2019t do it for me dear reader; do it for your neighbor, do it for yourself, do it for your children. Together we can make this a better place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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