By Kay S. Pedrotti
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
After watching people I know agonize over a lost password, without getting any help from the company that required it, I am convinced that life is really, truly harder now.
Why all the passwords, penalties, persistent aggravation? Cannot a family with a good credit rating, known for paying bills on time, be left with a password used for years? Is there really an increase in the number of “stolen” identities, or new procedures mandated “from above,” just to give the computer geeks something to do?
I keep remembering an old song, from a Disney movie or something, that was titled “What do the simple folk do?” Granted, not all senior citizens are “simple folk.” But there are enough new things, emerging from familiar paths, to convince us it’s our fault that such-and-such happened.
It’s not enough that we can’t find decent-looking, comfortable shoes to wear to church on Sunday. Or have never heard of things like “artificial intelligence,” much less know what it means or why. Or have to climb stairs to get seats for concerts or ball games. Or have to endure super-loud, wailing “crotch rocket” races in the middle of the night, because “that’s what young people do!!!” Baloney.
Still remaining in our country, I firmly believe, are such attitudes as love, respect and helping others. So could we please find enough time from our busy schedules to use these attitudes to make Lamar County and its cities a better place for everybody? Do we earnestly seek out the older folks in our churches and other organizations, to find out who needs help and when and why?
We do have organizations like Rebuild Lamar, civic clubs and sometimes even joint efforts in times of need, to accomplish not only a better place to live, but also to help create better people who occupy our little patch of earth. I remember vividly the efforts of hundreds of citizens after the tornado of 2011. That made me believe we did live in a great place with good people.
Dan Gunter and his much-younger granddaughter were hurled out of their home on Grove Street into a ditch, but nobody ignored them just because Dan was older. They were both in peril, and they both got help. There are dozens of incidents in which citizens have helped each other, and aided the first responders and law enforcement arriving at the scene of a wreck or some other disaster. If you don’t believe that, just ask any law officer whether they have ever ignored a call for help.
They have not. And neither should we.
Kay S. Pedrotti has spent some 50 years writing for newspapers. She is a past president of Lamar Arts Inc. and serves on the board of directors. She lives in Milner with her husband Bob.
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