Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn’t paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat…. “They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn’t do it,” Cranick told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann…. The fire started when the Cranicks’ grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond…. “We wasn’t on their list,” he said the operators told him.
By now most of us have heard the sad story of Gene Cranick. The short version is that Mr. Cranick’s house burned down…no, was ALLOWED to burn down because he apparently had not paid a $75 fee…a fee that he says he forgot to pay. That party of the story is sad enough. What saddens me even more is the reaction from so many on the Far Right and in the Tea Party. Not content with merely pouring salt in the wound of the Cranick family, these trolls have demonstrated their movement to be completely devoid of anything resembling compassion and human decency.
We could debate the wisdom of Obion County’s “pay to spray” subscription program, but to me that’s another argument for another time. No, for me this is about what kind of country we want to live in. Do we want a world where we assume at least a minimum of responsibility for our fellow man, where compassion is given when warranted? Or do we want to live in a world based on Social Darwinism as laid out by Ayn Rand in “Atlas Shrugged”? Do we willingly assume shared risks, or are we all independent agents who should be expected to rise or fall based on our own merit? Is it “we”? Or is it “us” and “them”? Is America best when the governing philosophy “I got mine; you can damn well get your own?”
To listen to Glenn Beck and other voices on the Far Right is to hear a point of view that holds that we are and should rightly all be on our own, left to fend for ourselves. When we’re together, the strongest and held back by the weakest. Only when the weakest are left to fend for themselves will America truly be strong, vital, and the best that it can be. It’s what happens in the animal kingdom, right? The weak fall back and are picked off by the predators. This benefits the strong by ensuring that the weak don’t remain and potentially dilute the gene pool.
Except that we’re not part of the “animal kingdom”. We- all of us- are part of the strongest, most prosperous country in the world. We’re not wildebeests, we’re Americans, and historically Americans have always found ways to come together and face challenges…together, because there really is strength in numbers.
Social Darwinism is a great, workable philosophy when you’re one of the fortunate ones. It’s easy to sit in judgment of others when you want for little and when material success is something you take for granted. Hey, you’ve got yours, and you worked hard for it, right? Why should we expect the same from others? Well, how about the reality that not all Americans begin from the same starting line, nor get the same breaks along the way. And whatever happened to the idea that from those to whom much is given, much is expected? Is it really now “he who dies with the most toys wins”??
There’s now a strain of public thought that holds that America is a nation of individuals, ultimately accountable only to and responsible for themselves. I get mine, you get yours…and don’t come crying to me if things don’t work out for you. If you don’t take care of business, if you get sick, or lose your job, or suffer some sort of debilitating illness, it’s not my job to pay for that. My tax dollars should not be used as insurance to provide for someone who falls short due to sloth, ignorance, bad luck, or poor planning.
The philosophy ultimately means that no individual should be taxed to pay for something that doesn’t benefit them directly. Except that this tramples on the whole idea of community, the the idea that we’re in this together and we have a responsibility to help care for one another. How hard would it have been for those in authority to have allowed firefighters to put water on the fire that destroyed Gene Crasnick’s house and killed his pets? Is this the inhuman style of future government that we have to look forward to? Granted, we’re talking about one small county in rural Tennessee, but there are those who applaud govenment a la carte as the wave of the future, the way things really ought to be.
Personally, I refuse to see the idea of community as some sort of evil, outdated form of Socialism. This country was found by a community of people fleeing relgious oppression. Losing that would mean losing a big part of what America is. We’re better than this, and we shouldn’t be ceding our future to those who would elevate the interests of the individual of the common good of the community.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
