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Today I am reading a story about a man going to jail over a water cup. He ordered a meal and a cup for water at a fast food chain and then filled his cup with soda instead of water. The store manager calls the police and he is arrested for theft.
Many people think this is no big deal, it is only a dollar! But they are missing the point, even if it is a penny, it is theft from the person that is losing the property. Everything has value to someone, but people today no longer think about the costs to anyone but themselves.
Our society has become very lost, theft of small things and theft of large things are no longer morally incomprehensible. When people no longer think about the cost to others then their actions no longer weigh against a moral compass. They begin to see everything only related to their selfishness. When we only think of ourselves then anything becomes acceptable.
We see news reports of it everyday, murder, rape, theft, assaults, abuse, war, genocide and the list goes on. We have become numb to the lives around us only thinking of ourselves. We push all the responsibility onto others and cry when they don't believe the same way we believe.
It is only $1, well I am not going to jail over $1, so what should I do? Pay for the soda or not take it in the first place. But others will pull their gun and shoot the person that is objecting to this person self given right to just take what they want.
At first it seems funny or absurd that a person would go to jail over using a water cup to steal soda with. But, what if he went to a gas station and stole a $1 of gasoline, or a bottle of water, or a dollar from your wallet, or a $1 of gasoline from your car, etc, etc. When it is someone else's property it is ok, but when it is your own property it is not ok. You had to pay for that gasoline, and trade a part of your life for that $1 in your wallet. Why is the value of your life worth more than the owner of the restaurant loosing the $1 he needs to pay the wages of the employees for their time.
All it takes is not teaching our children respect and moral responsibility. The less we teach our children the more they are going to learn from their peers.
The world today is becoming the babylon of old, it is because we are not teaching our children respect and helping them form their moral compass. When I was growing up I took a wallet from a store, my father noticed when we got home that I had a nice new wallet. I had to return the wallet to the store and explain to the store manager why I had taken his wallet and learned why it was not ok to take things that I wanted. Dad provided me a second reminder when we got home to make sure the life lesson stayed firmly affixed in my compass.
Because of this and many other life lessons my compass correctly points north. I learned morality and the value of others around me. It made me the man I am today. If we don't teach then we end up with the law of the jungle. We owe it to our children to teach the morality. That our actions have consequences, to value everything in life. |
