Friday, September 02, 2005

Local Thought Stream

People are people and unfortunately their not always civil. Here in Knoxville, there have been numerous people buying items (mainly water) to donate.
There was a tractor-trailer set up at Farragut High School that was being loaded and many of those items were being purchased from my work place.

First: The guy that donated his time and rig to the cause... lost his rig. It was parked in an area of the parking lot that had weak soil (almost a sink-hole). The soil gave way, the trailer folded, the rig is out of commission.

Second: I helped a woman load 10 cases of water into her car. I asked if she was going to the school to donate the water to the relief effort of the hurricane survivors. She said, "Don't get me on my soapbox. I'm donating this to those poor people. And I think we need to stop helping other countries for a while and help our own." There was more to it, but I won't go into all of that (my memory can't hold all of it).

Third: We, as Americans, hold a great deal of pride in our civility. We know we have laws, rules, and structure for a reason. Those of us that are "law-abiding" citizens don't have a problem following the rules and living in accordance with the laws. We are happy to have structure to our society - it helps to maintain civility. And while we look at many other countries, and wonder how they can be so uncivilized and opposed to order, sturcture, law, and rules. In short, they are seen as barbarians. It is sad. The short time that a part of our country has been in distress, many of those people have shown the same ruthless behavior as America's barbarian counterparts. They are human. Whether we choose to believe that or not, it is true. Though the majority of our people (and people everywhere) are peaceful and civil at heart, it only takes a few "bad apples" to ruin everything for everyone.

Retailers of every kind should be ashamed of themselves. Greed has no place at this time. Yet it is everywhere. I noticed this morning, that a case of water was up to almost $6. Yesterday it was about $4. Gas here has risen by almost 50cents in the past 2 or 3 days. They know people are buying things to donate, so they raise the prices. They know people will panic over gas, so they raise the prices. Who are they? Upper management of the establishments we purchase from.
What can we do about it? I'm open to suggestions. I'm sorry to say, I depend on the things they sell. I am a consumer. So are most of you - don't think you aren't.
What would you do if you couldn't afford gasoline, yet you have no other way to work? Ride a bike? How long will that last? Do you have a family to support? What about their needs?
We all have a great many questions that can't be answered. Right now, I'm just kinda typing a thought stream. Yeah, I made it a little bit past a drizzle.