To know more about neighbors

Studying International Business this semester, I've become more acutely aware that we all need to become more global. There are many people who will argue with me, because I believe they are scared to death of the inevitable -- the advent of technology and travel has brought us ALL much closer together. As far as I'm concerned, it's a good thing. Perhaps it will make us better stewards of the earth, the skies and each other. It's a bit harder to blast away at your neighbor, at least that's the way I see it!

But then comes an observation of recent events. The BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killer was someone's "neighbor" for a long, long time. He was BTK'ing people thirty years ago, and no one seemed to notice that this guy was a raging lunatic. To be cliche'ic, "what's up with THAT?!" We seem to have lost a lot of our "village" mentality. I attribute much of this to insurance. Yes, that's right.

Insurance, in my opinion, is legalized extortion. Anyone who know's me has been exposed to that likeness for a lot of years! Think back... what were those nice, friendly, mobsters doing in Sicily a hundred or more years ago? They were offering protection for a price. That mentality has grown into a multi-kazillion dollar industry called "insurance." For a price, they will take care of you "theoretically," and if you miss your payments, you may not get your kneecaps busted, but you'll get your chops busted and your insurance cancelled. You cannot buy a house or a car without the promise of insurance. Many lending institutions won't give you a loan without insurance. And most importantly, your neighbors won't come to your rescue or watch out for you or your kids because we now have "insurance" to take care of us in case something happens. So, we stop watching each other's backs, and choose instead to "not get involved" when something happens to our neighbors.

The Amish have barn-raisings when someone in the community needs a barn. We have gallon jars on a fast-food-restaurant counter into which people can ANONYMOUSLY drop a few pennies without any commitments. Nice.

We may all feel very sad for the people left behind following the Terri Shiavo death. But I feel more sad for the communities of people left behind that don't have a clue who the people are around them, nor do they care what happens to them. Unless it gets political. Then a bunch of people come out of the woodwork to voice their opinions. Hmph.