About a week ago I found myself in a conversation with a petitioner that stands outside of the Wal-Mart where I work (I never claimed to have a glamorous job). Now I wouldn’t quite call him a friend because I don’t know him all that well but he is an acquaintance. So I’m walking out the door after finishing my shift, and having had a few conversations with him before I decide to say hello and what not, being friendly. And he says to me, “This country is plagued with apathy and laziness.” I pause for a second, with my first reaction being, “Dude, you’re just now realizing this?” But I don’t say that, instead I ask him to elaborate.
So he continues on, stating at how people just don’t care about what’s important anymore. Now as a petitioner, what he does is stand outside out where I work and asking customers if they would like to sign his petitions as they leave the store. His petitions range from, legalizing gay marriage, to federal redistricting, to making changes in major laws and penalties that don’t work. Everyday he stands outside trying to help get important issues on the ballot so that the general public can actually vote on them. But nine times out of ten he gets any number of the following responses, “I’m too busy.” “None of that is important.” “Get a real job.” etc. etc. Yet everyday he tries.
At this point I’m beginning to understand just how sad it is that this is a common thing in America. The sad truth is that nobody gives a fuck anymore. That same day, before speaking with him, I had helped with a charity lunch to raise money for cancer patients. Spending four hours the night before preparing food. I spent my lunch hour serving food to those who donated the $5 for this charity foundation, and I noticed that quite a few people were not even giving it a second look. So what I would do is approach people who weren’t buying, thinking that they just didn’t realize it was for charity, and asking them if they would like to buy a plate for charity. Some of the responses I got floored me. Someone actually had the god damn audacity to say, “I don’t donate to charity, I’m my own charity.” BULLSHIT! You have a fucking job, you have a fucking roof over your head, and you don’t look like you’re fucking starving! Now I would have understood if a few of the people would have said that they couldn’t spare the $5 to buy a plate. Hell if someone would have had said that I would have bought them a plate, but none of them did.
Now I realize that this is just one small example but I don’t see the need in displaying too much more. I mean, you see it EVERYWHERE. Anytime you’ve ever seen a homeless person asking for spare change and everybody just walking past like they don’t exist. It’s fine if you don’t want to give that person money because you don’t want them to buy drugs or alcohol but what’s to stop you from buying them something to eat? I’m starting to become increasingly angered at even writing this right now so I’ll just stop here. Just remember people, we’re not alone in this world so we need to stop acting like it.
MidKnight 