Word Of The Day...

APATHY: N (Greek - apatheia; French-apathes - without feeling)

1: lack of feeling or emotion: impassiveness

2: lack of interest or concern: indifference

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Now I've lived in several states and visited several countries, yet nowhere have I seen today's word in such regular practice as I have in the beautifully mundane state of Indiana. You can argue the point I'm making, and maybe you're right and I'm wrong, but from where *I* stand and what I see and what I hear, perhaps you might rethink YOUR stance instead, if you were to walk a few miles in MY shoes.

No place is apathy more apparent than at the voting booths, not only here but across America. But in Indiana, apathy excels. We have 253,000 people just in Fort Wayne, yet check the numbers of people at the polls come election night....pitiful.

Apathy also reigns on our streets. Look at most any crime that occurs. With few exceptions by those even fewer brave souls that are not bothered by "doing the right thing" who come forward and provide information to the authorities, hardly ANYONE ever sees anything or knows anything about what happened at "the house up the street" (let's say it was a beating), even though they were outside taking cellphone pictures of the "event" to post on YouTube later that day. We can't simply chalk this up to "honor among thieves" either. Whether or not these people are in cahoots with whatever took place, or whoever "did the deed", they just don't HAVE any honor to speak of in the first place.

Funny thing is, many times these very same people are the ones pissing and moaning about how their trash wasn't picked up for over a week (editor's note: see today's JG- Frank Gray's column). They never lift a finger to make things better UNTIL they feel they can get some attention (as if their area has been ignored by the bad old city departments, which it hasn't).

They seem to live by the creed: "If it's not entertaining and takes more than 30 seconds...don't bother with it". And that's why THEIR neighborhoods look the way they do. It's not poverty at work, people...it's APATHY. You can be poor AND still give a damn about something or someone.

In my area alone, there are but a mere handful of *us* that are attempting to at least keep things from getting worse. Maybe there's only ONE of us on every other block, but WE are doing SOMETHING, and that's a crapload more than everyone else is doing (which would be not one damn thing). Even if it's something as small as picking up a piece of litter (or catching someone tossing something on the sidewalk, and calling them on it when it happens). It might be as simple as just keeping OUR properties looking nice.

We can't help ourselves...WE were brought up better than the rest of these "people" around here, and we didn't have silver spoons in our mouths when we were born (stainless steel...or plastic).

We just had something called GOOD PARENTS WITH DECENT VALUES. That basically translates to not suffering from CHRONIC APATHY. We take care of what we're allowed to have in life, and strive to pass values such as this along to OUR next generation. And that's a FAR CRY from what is passing along to subsequent generations of people in this city. We simply don't allow apathy a place to dig in it's heels.

We might not be able to show equal conviction and passion to EVERY facet of living here...that would take a person with superhuman abilities, but we do what we can with what we have available to us. We at least TRY. We don't treat the entire area as OUR personal playground. We don't pursue illegal activities on a regular basis. We don't seek to annoy others without just cause (the golden rule thing). We care about what happens AROUND us, as it will invariably have some impact UPON us, and anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves.

When we see someone in need...we assist.

When something needs being done...we DO it.

When action is required...we act.

And those who are not with us (as the saying goes), must be against us. Life, as many will find out soon enough, does NOT run itself for you.
Now that doesn't mean that we respond to everything all the time. Again, that requires superhuman effort, and usually by a LOT more people than our merry handful of people who still happen to give a damn.

We sort of hope that those who ARE apathetic would catch on to what WE do and how we act, and how we treat others, because we "teach" by example, but they're too damned apathetic to even bother. How's THAT for irony?

Apathy has managed to invade every aspect of the human condition in recent years. The good news is that not everyone subscribes to that mindset...yet. We can spend too much time pointing too many fingers at too many people while never scratching the surface of the real problem. What we need to do is continue to do what we KNOW is right. Those of us who will not embrace apathy as a lifestyle need to stay the course in our lives. We might not change any minds, but we can be assured that OUR lives are better for it. We might not like the outcome of the masses' indifference, but it's the few that have the ability to change minds.

History has proven as much to us.

All we have to do is not be content to rest on our laurels.