Befuddled, Bewildered, Bemused…

The following is my rant about people, corruption and the poorest among us. I am flustered by this situation.
I am a 44-year-old guy, and I understand that there are individuals in this world who are merely bad people. As a man that is from a broken home, I comprehend that this is a fact of life. My parents were both good people in their own way. Only when I was forced to eat my vegetables can I say that my childhood was rough. When I was a kid, my best friend was a good guy. His mom was a good woman and played the role of my second mom. I spent most of my childhood time in the Boy Scouts. My father was not around very much, so the scout leaders took the job as a male role model without hesitation. The Scout leaders were excellent men and helped raise me well. They taught me everything that I needed to become the man that I am today. I keep life simple: I strive to be a kind person and to do good things. This world does not need any more negativity, hate or corruption.

I feel that sadly not everyone had positive people to help raise them. Apparently, some individuals have gotten in with the wrong crowds. A friend recently reminded me: “the company you keep does have an impact and influence on your choices.” Of course, this statement does not change as you age. Unfortunately, sometimes one small action can make their life go down an evil path. If they don’t have a good person in their life to steer them back to the correct road, then a bad person can be “born.”

It takes one wrong person to say to them “isn’t this fun?” when they steal a car. It could be the wrong group of people to say: “take these pills, and you will go places like never before.” Yes, these may be extreme scenarios, but life is not always black and white. A little greed turns into avarice very quickly. There is never enough. I am sure that most wrongdoers would not admit that they are evil people. Some do not even care what people think of them. When I am confronted by those who knowingly do bad things I am always astonished.

I was recently at my dad’s house when the cable man was coming for a cable box repair. The cable guy replaced two outdated cable boxes. I sat on the couch next to my wheelchair, and I said nothing in the beginning. I was neither surprised nor bothered when he spoke only to them and ignored me. He began to explain to them that this was going to be a fifty dollar “service call.” He told them that if they did not want to pay that fee, then they needed to sign up for a monthly five dollar per month “service contract.” If any of you who are reading this know me, then you can attest that I am a quiet person and keep to myself. I’ll finish the story when you stop laughing. Ok, it wasn’t THAT funny. I AM honestly a reticent guy.

I politely asked him why they had to pay to repair faulty equipment owned by WOW Cable. He quickly made a vague statement to me and then looked back at them to continue. He reiterated to them that to avoid the service fee. I interrupted again and said “I’m sorry, but you did not answer my question. Why do they have to pay for faulty WOW Cable equipment?” He tried to dance around the issue. I asked him if he was a contractor. He explained that he was an actual WOW Cable employee. He stated that he fills out all of his paperwork on a computer. He told how using this computer meant that he only has two options. Option one is to rob them of fifty dollars. Or option two is to steal five dollars per month over the next twelve months. Ok, that explanation was in my words to my readers only, but facts are facts. “I have personally used WOW Cable for many years and have never faced this issue,” I said. He shrugged that off avoiding me as much as possible.

The technician tried to put all of the blame on WOW Cable of course. I agree that Wow Cable is mostly to blame. Although, I believe that the technician is partly to blame as well. I’d call this preying on the elderly. He is willing to steal from those who have the least. Even if Wow told him to do this how can he say yes? If it were the choice of theft or not having a job, I would gladly be jobless. I don’t know how most people would handle if faced with this query. I would not do this for all of the money in the world. Maybe I should work at becoming more corrupt? Yeah, a snowball has a better chance at life in Brazil then me becoming corrupt.

I have a friend who I’ve known for a long time who calls me quite frequently. Occasionally I discuss my blog topics with him. I have always known him to be a pretty good guy. For a while, he even worked at his church doing a computer ministry. I was explaining this situation to him. I stated that I mostly blame WOW cable, yet I also blame the technician. When he asked why I blamed the tech I thought that he was joking. I asked him if he could steal from people like that. His answer truly astonished me. “It depends on if I would get caught,” he said. WHAT? I quickly said, “Well I guess that makes me a better person than you because I could steel.” I still thought that he was joking, but he was not kidding. He quickly changed the subject.

I honestly don’t know what to do with this information. I am flabbergasted! This behavior makes me question humanity. The Wow technician alone gives me great pause. However, adding my “friend” into the mix. Well, some days I genuinely question humankind. Are there enough of the good people out there to keep the scales tipped in our favor? This Wow tech sees eight or ten people a day. There are how many cable techs that do this? Can enough positivity be done to counteract the negative? I feel that this issue is not limited to Christianity, but more of a good versus evil thing. This issue proves that being a Christian like my friend is, does not automatically make you a good person. Just like being an agnostic does not automatically make you a bad person. Whatever the case, please make sure that your older loved ones are aware.