32 Weeks 5 Days: People Helping People

I know I tend to be pretty negative all the time. I'm really not. My blog is kind of like the news: The news rarely plays good-will stories because the stories with destruction, crime and violence get more ratings. They have a saying, "If it bleeds, it reads". If they get a last minute story of someone being injured, they will pick a nice story (fluff piece) and drop it like 3rd period French. I use this as a forum to express all the things that are idiotic (hence the title of the blog). But 75% of the time I'm happy with things. The world isn't a perfect place but it could definitely be worse.

Me and contractor friend of mine, Mike, are working a project right now. It was initially planned to take about 7 working days. Not a huge project and we were all on schedule and doing really well until one of the homeowners had a major medical problem and had to go into surgery and will now be in the hospital for at least a month. We were able to keep working, but the homeowners were planning on doing some of the interior work themselves. So we added insulation and drywall to our bid at the last minute and a few other things which added a few days of labor. Well, I ended up giving her a free day of labor just to help them out in a rough time. And they were planning to remodel their attic as well and their friends and neighbors have offered to help out wherever they can. A community of people that are looking out for each other and if one person fails, the rest help pick them back up. Now, I know that's the definition of Socialism, which is apparently evil, but doesn't that seem like a good way to live? Even small things. A few months back I was in a hurry and grabbed a few things out of my garage and then took off without closing it. My next door neighbor noticed and closed our garage for us when he was leaving for work. Just looking out for your neighbor so nobody steals their stuff. And I'd do the same for them. Why is that so hard?

Instead we have people just ignoring a guy stomping an infant to death on the side of the road. Just drive on by because, "I just don't want to get involved". Or people being so sue-happy that it makes other people afraid to get involved because you could help someone and then they might turn around and sue you. Which is ridiculous (there is supposed to be something called "the good Samaritan law" but there are so many legal loopholes it doesn't matter). Or people saying, I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare out of my taxes (even though you pay for everyone else's now with increased medical bills). Everyone just looks out for themselves and ignores everyone else. And that will work fine until something happens to you and you need someone else's help. Then you hippocrates are fine with socialism.

And we're all afraid of each other. The other day I saw a car broken down in the middle of the road. There's nothing more frustrating than a car just sitting in the road with it's hazard lights on with the driver making no effort to get the car out of the road. This driver was a little old lady so I understand that she couldn't push the car. But she was right next to a parking lot and there were a couple of young guys standing at a bus stop right by her and they were trying to offer to push her car into the parking lot, to get it out of the road, but she just ignored them and kept the doors locked. So there was a huge traffic jam because she was afraid of a couple of guys who were just trying to help. We don't need to fear everything. I know the news tells us to, but they're lying. Like I said at the beginning of this post, the news only plays crime ridden stories, so it seems like that's all that's going on in the world. If they played good and bad stories at the same ratio as they happen in the real world, you'd rarely hear a story about crime.

If your community is the kind that band together and help each other out and work as a true community, you should be very thankful. I have to admit that I don't even know most of the people who live on my small street and I should change that. Soon. But I'd still help them out if I saw them in need...