FROZEN IN TIME
I'm no different than you. A cursory glance through any newspaper, on any given day, will turn up an assortment of heartbreaking crimes and tragedies. Like you, I get numb to it. It's human nature. You see or hear anything often enough and our innate defense mechanism quells the sharpness of it, allows us to gloss it over. I suppose this is what keeps us from the grip of insanity, or of simply becoming overwhelmed by it all. Social and behavioral boundaries that were once taken for granted are all but obsolete, and with that change comes what should be the expected increase in bizarre, and not usually pleasantly bizarre, occurrences.
So, with all that being said, when a story stops me in my tracks, literally shakes me or even causes me to weep, I stop and take stock of the occasion. Last week such a story surfaced in the death of 93 year-old Marvin Schur of Bay City, Michigan who was found frozen to death in his home. He was a World War II veteran. He was behind on his electric bill to the tune of $1,000.00 and the utility company had placed a limiting device on his meter. This device, apparently, limits the use of power, in theory allowing enough to sustain an inhabitant, but to limit further financial liability to the power company.
I'm not even blaming the utility company here. That's too easy. Indeed, if blame were the issue, I am as much to blame as anyone else. I can tell you without hesitation, had I known of his plight, I would have sacrificed a mortgage payment to help him. I think a lot of people would have. So, what happened here?
To their credit, in the wake of this incredibly senseless event, community leaders in Bay City have stepped up immediately to ensure that it couldn't happen again. The power limiting devices are gone. The Postal Service has suggested that their carriers should report a build-up of mail to their supervisor who will in turn report it to police. Citizens are organizing a group to check on senior citizens. I have read nothing about this mans family, or lack of one, or how it could have happened that a 93 year-old had nobody interested in checking in on him.
What really blows my mind about this story is having it resting uncomfortably in the background of the heavily covered story of the Big Bail Out. Imagine, as we prepare to dole out a historic amount of taxpayer money to untold hundreds of institutions, companies that showered their CEO's with multi-million dollar bonuses, and a laundry list of pork projects that dwarfs anything in our history, that a veteran of Word War II lay, literally, freezing to death in his home. It is shameful beyond measure. It breaks my heart.
Marvin Schur will probably be quietly laid to rest at a sparsely attended service. The days of his youth, the fear, loneliness and discomfort he endured serving his country, all long-forgotten now. There is clamoring to be sure it doesn't happen again. New rules will be made, committees will be formed, studies will be performed. All of these will most likely overlook, because we are unfamiliar with it these days, the one element that will make preventing this from happening again very difficult. That element is the pride of that generation, of men like Marvin, that undoubtedly prevented him from asking for help. Perhaps this final act of courage sends the strongest statement of all, that it was, incredibly, easier for Marvin to tough out the cold under layers of blankets, or at least try to, than it was to ask for help.
Think about that. These days, we are all about ourselves. Millions of us receive from the giving hand of the government without hesitation or a hint of shame. I didn't know Marvin Schur, but I will miss him. I wish I could have thanked him for his service, but most of all, I wish he could have been comfortable...warm, at least, in his last days. They don't build 'em like that anymore.
Karl From New Hampshire