My Blog

I’ll tell you what’s wrong.  No one assumes any ownership or accountability for anything.  I shouldn’t say no one.  There are some people who do.  However, I get so frustrated by those that just sit by and expect everyone to do for them.  A couple of examples.

I was at the gas station and a young woman drives up in a nice looking, probaby not new, but good looking F150 truck.  She pulled up as I was approaching my truck to get in and leave.  She got my attention and asked a question that I couldn’t hear.  I excused myself and asked her to repeat it.  But then I cut her off in the middle of her question as I knew where it was going.  I said, “Let me guess.  You need gas money.”  To which she said yes.  She has her kids in the vehicle and has no money for gas.  She said I could go look at the vehicle if I didn’t believe her.  Now, why would she say that?  I’m not going to go check up on her story.  While she was talking I gave her a quick once over.  She was probably 20-23 years old.  Her hair was pulled up nicely and she had a scarf around her head.  Kind of a 70s thing going on.  Her sunglasses we also perched on her head.  She was nicely dressed in a skirt and a top.  They were nice; somewhat conservative.  She wasn’t flaunting anything.  Her nails were manicured (fake nails).  I asked her why she was driving around with no gas.  She said she was just praying that she’d make a gas station.  I told her I didn’t want to look at her vehicle and I wasn’t going to help her (give her money or gas).  I told her she needed to plan better.  I got in my truck and drove off.  Now, what in the world is she doing driving around with her kids in the car if she knows she has no gas and no money to buy gas?  When this happens, you stay home!  Or you walk!  Or you call a friend or family member.  Why on earth would you walk up to a total stranger and ask for money.  I’ll tell you why.  Because in today’s society, it’s acceptable to beg.  In fact, I’ve had some panhandlers get mad and insult me when I tell them I’m not going to help them.  They’ve got a lot of nerve!  Actually, they think they don’t.  They think I’m the one with a lot of nerve.  You see, they think they are entitled to my money.  If you talk to them, they tell you they’ve tried to find a job.  No one is hiring.  Or the job was too far away.  Or it doesn’t pay enough.  Doesn’t pay enough?!  Compared to what?!  Compared to the money that they hustle from people that give them money just to make them go away.  (Most people don’t want the confrontation and pay to get rid of them.)

I actually was approached once in the supermarket parking lot by a guy that said his daughter was just admitted to the hospital in Flagstaff and he needed gas money to get there to be with her.  I told him no.  I was actually approached by the same guy about a month later, in the same parking lot, with the same story.  I just looked at him and told him his daughter must be the most unlucky person to have to be admitted twice in as many months.  He just looked at  me.  I stared right back and told him he approached me last month and he should probably change his story every once in awhile.  He turned without a word and walked away.  I got in my truck.  I saw him approach a woman and talk to her.  She started to get in her purse.  I drove over.  I got to them just before she handed the money over.  She actually had it in her hand.  I stopped right next to them and told her not to give him money as I had heard the story just the past month.  She retracted the money.  I stayed there until she was safely in her car while I watched him walk away.

But I digress.  That wasn’t the second example.  This is.  I was in Sportsman’s Warehouse again today.  They have a computer there that you can use to print out topographical maps.  I walked up and it had an out of order sign on it.  I said softly, out loud, “you gotta be kidding me” and I just stood there for a couple of seconds.  While I walked up and while I was standing there, two employees were standing close by.  One was behind the optics counter and the other was leaning against an end cap.  I started to look around and I saw one of those magazine carousels.  It had topos of CA, NV, AK.  I started to walk toward it.  The kid leaning against the end cap says, “There’s no AZ maps there.  We don’t have any.”  I half jokingly said, “Well what good are you then”.  He shrugged his shoulder’s.  The guy behind the optics counter says, “Hey, don’t blame us.  We just work here.”  I looked at him and said, “That’s a great sense of ownership you’ve got there” and walked out.  Now, I bet he doesn’t even know what I meant by that.  He probably thought to himself, “I don’t own this place.”  While he’s right.  He’s technically wrong.  Every employee of every company owns the success of that company.  I see this so much in our young people today.  No ownership.  They don’t step up.  It’s not their problem.  But they get mad because they didn’t get the promotion that they feel (wrongly so) they should get because they have merely shown up to work on time every day and do everything they’re told to do, but do nothing to show initiative and excel.  But then they still don’t see that as caused by them.  Should the store management make sure they don’t run out of maps?  Sure.  But those two employees could go see the manager and tell them that they are losing business because they don’t have maps.  Maybe then the manager could get some from another store, or call and expedite the current replenishment order.  Something.   But instead, “Hey, don’t blame us.  We just work here.”  Really?  You look like you just take up space and put a drain on your company.

We need to fight against the victim mentality that exists in our society today.  We also need to fight against our government supporting the victim mentality.  Victims are not born, they are made.  They are made by society coddling the populace.  It seems everyone wants a handout.  Not just the guy/gal in the lot.  Not just the “I hold up the end cap” employee.  But our big corporations too.  Unless we can do something about this mentality, we are doomed.