What would you do?

Picture this… Syracuse, you’re a poor but honest writer taking a morning stroll. Before you on the sidewalk is a very large woman’s wallet. You pick up the wallet and inside you find someone’s life. There is a sum of cash; roughly six or eight credit cards; driver’s license; insurance cards etc. It contained all the stuff that creates and oh SH*T moment when they are gone altogether. The woman on the license did not look familiar or happy and the street address I had never heard of. As I stood there I looked about to see if there was anyone who resembled the woman in the photo. I was standing in front a vacant store front and the insurance office next door did not appear open. I had a few thoughts here…

My first thought was to touch the wallet as little as possible in that I had no idea how it got there. As you may all have learned here, I am indeed part germaphobe, part conspiracy theorist. Had the owner actually dropped it or was it dropped by a stick up man or something? My over-active imagination wandered further down stupid road to; maybe it was set there by the producer of one of those “moralistic” television shows and there were a dozen or so people watching me hoping I’d stripe the thing of its contents and make a go for it. Then they could appear telling me what was going on and condescend like Mrs. Greenwood in the second grade. To this day I still maintain that I did not drop a cleaned eraser on the way for the storage cupboard. No matter, I also quickly pondered whether or not it was like that “Bait Car” television show where the police leave a running SUV in the hood and wait for someone to get in and then arrest them. I guess those weird thoughts should have been dismissed but, they weren’t. I looked across the street and saw a Veterinarian’s office and a mailbox next to that. I walked over and stood staring at the opened wallet in my hands. I wondered what I would want someone to do if they had found my life encased in faux leather. I also thought of karma.


It then occurred to me to take the thing home and search for the owner. I had an address and name. I then had the overwhelming thought that people suck. What if I called up and the person accused me of not returning all of her belongs or that she had more than a couple three twenties? In case you have not noticed, people see windfall opportunities everywhere. I actually felt bad for thinking these thoughts. In the old days the first and only option would have been to personally return the lost wallet. This is now entirely too risky. So here’s, what I did…

I smeared my prints where I had held the wallet and then dropped it in the mailbox. I looked about for Allen Funt or some such reincarnation and then crossed the street again and continued on my way. I was sad.

Rational Thinking

I usually reserve this spot for humor and other items/things that make me scratch my head. Now, this incident certainly made me scratch my head. Earlier today I was accused of "thinking like a white person." I immediately knew what that person meant and was a tad offended. Here's how all of this got started: As I was dressing, I watched the local news out of one corner of my eye. A particular story seemed interesting to me. Later on I relayed to someone the story of a local liquor store that was robbed; the robber took a sum of cash and a bottle of champaign. I imagine that the bottle was to celebrate his victory over oppression? That was sarcasm for my new readers. Well, I continued my commentary adding that people seem surprised that small businesses and other services leave the city. I added that businesses like mom and pop setups are particularly vulnerable to stick-up bandits in that it is difficult to watch their shops and help real customers at the same time. Criminals can make quick work of these places where the register is not usually far from the door. What solicited the mean spirited comment was my statement that people tend to think of their and their family's safety over service to their communities. I made that comment without judgment. If they cannot run a business without a better than even chance of having their earnings taken from them, they most likely see no other choice other than to close down shop and move on to a safer venue.

I was responded to with loud cries that suburban and rural communities experience robberies all the time. I was not denying that. What I was saying was that a sense of community coupled with a stronger police presence made other areas at least appear safer to a business owner. If you live in a place where you know the police personally and you feel that your customers are not just customers but also your friends and neighbors you naturally feel more committed to offering the service(s) that you provide. If you are robbed you feel more secure that the culprit will be found. The community might even drop a dime (quarter) to see that the robber is brought to justice. In the city we have become jaded, apathetic. We do not take the violation of that shopkeeper personally; we almost expect that he will eventually have trouble. We don't see it as our problem.

What I do not quite understand is how my position has anything at all to do with race. Wishing for a sense of community where people can live and work and run their business while feeling relatively safe, I cannot fathom as a "white" invention. I am however amazed that anyone (I do not believe that the person I was talking to has views different from a great many others) would actually try to justify a disinterest in their own safety and future by dismissing a kinder perhaps gentler world as race specific.

BTW, I might flatter myself but, I believe that I am a rational thinker and I do not believe that any particular race either invented or controls that.

"Somebody got kilt."

Stop me if you heard this one…

I live in a fairly nice area of a city. Like most cities these days this means that you are roughly a quarter to a half mile from dicey areas. I reside at the very top of a great hill. There are no neighbors directly across the street or to the right of the house and but one to the left. The next street down is a fully regular city block but, the two side streets rise to only allow for two properties at the top. There isn’t much traffic up there and it indeed seems like another world. It is only when I climb down the great hills for a block or two that reality slowly sets in.

This morning I walked along enjoying the morning sun and even humidity when I noticed cars parked on both sides of the street a short distance ahead. I first assumed that a nearby church was having yet another bake/garage sale. As I walked I noticed huge numbers of people on foot coming from the other direction as well as people getting out of cars and on bicycles. They appeared to be coming from as far as 3 or 4 blocks ahead. After I passed the church, I noticed its lot almost empty; no sale there. I then concentrated on the other side of the street. The nearest side street had several police cars in front of the Lutheran Church, my polling place. I started to walk faster as the crowd grew and people seemed fixated on that little side street. I overheard a grand woman tell another, “This is the work of the devil.” Experience has taught me that it is never wise to dilly-dally about when the devil has been busy. I walked faster.

As I walked, a kid of maybe 16 rode along side me on a rusty blue bike entirely too small for him. I turned and asked, “What’s going on over there?” “Somebody got kilt,” responded in a tone as if I had asked simply the time. I looked ahead and walked even faster. As I’ve said a couple times here in posts before, I am probably one of the few people around in our voyeuristic culture that turns for the opposite direct when he smells smoke or hears sirens. I have no desire to be an eyewitless (yeah, I meant that). And I have certainly no desire to become another “innocent victim” on the local news.

What is it about people that would make them venture out, most in their night clothes at nine on a Saturday morning to get a glimpse of tragedy? I guess I could go into a rant about instant “news” or reality TV encouraging 15 minute fame mongers but, I won’t because you’ve certainly heard those arguments. I will say that we are horribly desensitized when we have any need at all to be part of such an ordeal. At least a hundred or more people left the safety of their homes to see who got “kilt” and how. They will most likely spend much of the day sharing what they know or think they know about what happened. I wonder how many will use the incident as a spring board to take the details of what happened and use them to create a safer community? Unfortunately, a safe community seldom makes for interesting conversation at the bar or beauty parlor.