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Due to recent cutbacks,
the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off until further
notice.
(Seen on a
bumper sticker.)
After hearing his story,
I had to ask him, “Are you crazy?”
You see, he had just
finished telling me that someone tried to burn his house down while he
was in it, stolen his camper, taken back a 4-wheeler that he had paid
on, emptied his bank account, and any legal assistance he was due was
slow, if it existed at all.
Typically, there are two
types of people who approach a newspaper staff member to get their
stories printed: angry people, and desperate people with no where else
to go.
Both groups believe that
if their story gets public attention, a solution will come. The second
group has typically tried every other possible route, and, as a last
resort, become willing to display their troubles and woes to the whole
world to get some relief or assistance.
Often, these
folks are in over their head in a legal or political matter. They have
no money for an attorney, and being shuffled here and there through
phone calls and piles of paperwork sprinkled with long words which mean
little. They need help, and somehow, they think the newspaper can help
them.
What help is there for a
struggling reformed addict, who can’t read or write, who is without his
truck, without his home, now living in a barn? Even his dog has
vanished. This man is getting shuffled around several government systems
to be sure. If he can’t get help there, from where does his help come?
What about
the two property owners who appeared at the commission meeting to take
issue with the increases on their property taxes? One man mailed his
farm exemption form, as he has done for years, but the assessor’s office
did not receive it. In turn, the property owner did not receive a notice
of the increases in the mail, and was now asking to have his taxes
adjusted to include the exemption.
To
paraphrase, he asked commissioners, “Is it wrong to do the right thing?”
They didn’t
want to set precedent, because of those in the future who would take
advantage.
No one who
comes forth with such fantastic tales of woe is politically polished.
Women who claim to have been assaulted by a police officer, men who have
their house set fire with them inside, families with physical ailments,
property owners with progressive agricultural research centers--none of
these are picture perfect.
If they had
political pull or in-depth knowledge, or money, these things would not
happen to them.
Are their
tales mere conspiracy theories? Are they fantastical tales of unlikely
developments? Are they lies?
Is someone
really out to get them? Allowing them to suffer? Didn’t they really ask
for it, deserve it, or actually forget to file the form? You can’t
assume that. Not these days, not any more.
On a day
when doing the right thing has been referred to as “setting precedent,”
there’s only one thing I am able to say to these people who ask us for
help: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you, and I don’t think anyone can.”
With the
sound of my own words in my ears, I am disheartened to discover that
deep down, I’m beginning to believe it. There is no help, there is no
light at the end of the tunnel.
As the
economy keeps squeezing us, and the pressure keeps building within, and
more and more people are forced to do without food, heat, support,
assistance and generosity, more and more people are going to feel
desperate, or take desperate measures.
The stress and pressure
on the mind is enough to cause illness, mental and physical. It forces
us to consider options we may never have considered before. It brings
out strange behavior, anger, resentment, a desperate grasp for
self-preservation, at costs very few can predict or comprehend.
This is a
community where a woman committed suicide by jumping in front of a car
on Main
Street;
where a man lay in wait to shoot his brother-in-law over a property
dispute. We had a juror in a murder trial pull his guns in a state
police barracks. I’ve seen a man urinate right in front of a
Main Street
store, and a dog, with half his face blown away by a shotgun, left to
die.
Which story
is fantasy and which is truth? Often truth is stranger than fiction.
So, is the
man who had his house set on fire really crazy? I really don’t want to
know. I actually hope he is, because the alternative is frightening.
Quite a few who have encountered him will say yes, but there were points
of his story that ring true, confirmed by some records and some
conversations later in the day. The man’s landlord has been frustrated
with the limited police attention the fire has drawn, and has chuckled
that someone may actually be trying to kill his tenant.
We may never know. |