The Extinction of the Good Neighbor...

We used to (in the U. S. of A.) have a term that many people wanted, both for themselves and of others. It was called "Being a Good Neighbor". Good Neighbors welcomed new people to a neighborhood, helped with every little thing that the family next door could not do for themselves or just needed a helping hand with. Good Neighbors DEFINED a community. Good Neighbors insured the newspapers and mail did not stack up, while you were on vacation. Good Neighbors helped keep an eye on all the neighborhood kids, before the kids had pagers, cell phones, drugs and guns. Good Neighbors helped increase property values and lower insurance premiums. Good Neighobrs are nearly extinct.

Lately, I have been helping some neighbors in the apartment complex I live in. I've been trying to be the Good Neighbor. Now, I know why Good Neighbors are so few. I will call it UAS, the Used and Abused Syndrome. This is where you, trying to be the Good Neighbor, become another neighbor's b&^%$. Let me explain what I mean...

Recently, I was asked for help by a neighbor who does not have a working vehicle. This was not a big deal, I needed to do grocery shopping, anyway. So, at the grocery store, she starts loading up the cart. Milk, cereal, essential food stuffs normal stuff, mostly the generic brands. The baby formula was not, but that is understandable cause the infant regurgitates the other. I've got a carry that I'm putting a few things into, lunchmeat, bread, etc. She also picked up diapers, dish soap and other cleaning supplies. In my opinion, things that are needed. As we are checking out, all the food stuffs go on her WIC/Food stamps card. Then she asks for two cartons of name brand cigarettes. Nearly $100.00 for cigarettes for her and her husband. The non-food stuffs bill came to $117.84. She did not have the cash to pay for it! She asked me to cover it, she had the cash at the apartment, she just spaced on bringing it. I've done similar, so OK, I pay for the non-food stuffs. We get to the apartments, unlaod the bags to hers and I go on home.

Two hours later, she comes back, asking if I can take her back to the store, she forgot a couple of things. I tell her that she will have to wait about an hour, as I finish a task. She smiles, and leaves, with an 'ok'.

Ten minutes later, her husband is at my door, letting himself in, smoking one of those foul cigarettes in MY apartment demanding that I take his wife to the store, right now. With the change in attitude, I suggest I will gladly take her, when I finish what I am doing AND when she pays me back for the non-food items purchased at the store.

The SOB takes a swing at me for telling him what needs to be done and what his wife is going to do. He quickly found himself out the door. The critical item needed from the store? Beer.

Since then, I have helped them with little things, running to the store, when I was already going that way, etc. I still have not seen the $117.84. It has been three months. She tells me she does not have the money, because he is not employed and he does not want to be employed. Yet they still have cigarette and beer money.

This is an example of what happens to Good Neighbors. People start taking advantage of them. The Good Neighbor is seen as a fool to soon be seperated from his money and belongings. An easy mark.

In today's America, decent, helpful, compassionate people are seen to be chumps and easy targets for those who are less than honorable. The people who have no personal interest or drive towards financial independence are the ones now running our country. They have infected our very way of life. Success to them is mastering the New American Dream: stay at home, have no job, and get others to pay for their very existance.

I'm tired of it. I and many I know are done helping. I go home, I close and lock my door. That is where I stay, until I need to go somewhere else. Then it is straight there and back, no socializing with my neighbors. All my social interactions are with people I know online that share common interests (Linux) and at work. I don't even answer the door for peopel I don't know or recognize. The self sequester is not out of fear of violence, but out of self disgust for being a fool, once again.

But an interesting point just came to my mind. I believe there are many more of these people (like my neighbors) that will be at the polls in November than the rest of us. And the only reason that will happen is because Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are promising free existence for life. Between increasing the variety and breadth and depth of our taxes, the demmocrats are promising that money to go to these free-loaders. In an effort to create a more just an dequal America, our (proposed ?) leadership will destroy the very foundation of our contry. Each person is an individual and is granted rights and privileges there of. To make everyone a member of a single welfare based nanny-state smacks of Stalin and Marx.

Well, that's all I've got to say about that.

P.Blacksmith