by Craig Wiesner – San Mateo Daily Journal Jan 23, 2024
Question: If an able-bodied person parks in a handicap spot, hops out of his vehicle to pick up coffee, and gets back within five minutes with no parking ticket, has he done any harm? Every day I watch people pull into the handicap spot outside our shop, some putting on their blinkers (like that makes a difference) jumping out or having their kids dash out for them. You might ask why I don’t go outside and say something. I used to warn people about the cost of potential tickets only to have some get furious and yell, tell me to mind my own business, or say “I was only there for five minutes!”
Don’t worry readers… police/sheriffs do actually give tickets for what one officer called “the most expensive cup of coffee in history.” So, consider yourself warned. It is not just illegal, it’s morally wrong. Imagine how it feels to be a disabled person, not finding a spot because someone is only breaking the law for five minutes.
This and other rampant behavior I see these days, like careening from lane to lane on the freeway at 80mph, jumping the turnstile to avoid paying BART, shoplifting, refusing to obey a subpoena, disregarding jury notices, lying under oath, defaming people, not paying owed taxes, falsifying business records, rioting and assaulting police officers, and for crying out loud not picking up dog poop…. These all point to what one might opine is an erosion of our mutual moral compasses.
I’m reminded of my father Herbie, standing in the lobby of 370 7th Avenue NYC where he worked for 50 years, trying to find the person who had dropped a $5 bill so that he could return it after finding it on the ground. Some years back while out walking, our dog Toby pulled me towards a spot where I discovered a wrinkled $10 bill. I looked around, thinking of Herbie, but seeing no one I put it in my pocket. A couple of hours later three kids were in our shop and one of them picked out a gyroscope to buy. When he dug into his pocket he cried out “I lost my money!” His friends surrounded him with one saying “Dude! That was TEN DOLLARS!” I asked “Were you guys on Hacienda Street today?” Yup. I took out the wrinkled $10 bill. Toby got a cookie. Everyone was happy.
When we opened our new shop an elected official visited and after a great conversation about the community and local issues, I offered them a chocolate bar as we said goodbye. “No, thank you. I never take any gifts.” Wow. I’m guessing Justice Clarence Thomas didn’t get that memo.
Of course I’ve worried about our national moral compass before, and am especially vexed when someone declares that they don’t care what wrongs may have been done, shouting “My Country, Right or Wrong!” They say we should stop looking backwards. “Move forward!” They want us to stop teaching the uglier sides of history and are banning books that might make some students “feel uncomfortable” about the past. Former President Donald Trump just told an Iowa crowd, right after a school shooting where a student and principal died, “We have to get over it. Move forward.” No! Senator Carl Schurz got the “My Country Right or Wrong” idea right in 1871, adding “If right, to be kept right; and if wrong to be set right.”
Of course we have to look back to learn from our moral successes and failures. How can we celebrate the heroic actions of Oskar Schindler without the backdrop of the actual horrors of the Holocaust? How can we lift up Frederick Douglas, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King without vividly understanding our original sin of slavery, the legacy of homophobia, and the depravity of white supremacy?
Our early church group once discussed a magazine article about how every generation thinks our moral compasses are in decline. Despite what doom scrolling might suggest, I believe that they aren’t. We have as many heroes and villains today as we’ve ever had though today’s media makes dastardly deeds much more visible. Remember that many people we each see as villains today are heroes of their own stories and the tides of history may eventually favor them. When you look at the people in your life, friends, neighbors, colleagues, family and acquaintances, do they seem awful to you? Do they seem morally corrupt? True, as the Stanford Prison Experiment showed, most of us are only a bit of manipulation away from behaving terribly, but most of us are, most days, pretty decent folks just trying to live our best lives.
So, let’s try to be humble, study history, park responsibly, and pick up that darned poop!