In a time where we’re living in zigzag, helter-skelter, flying upside down past-the-speed-of-understanding world, it’s calming to just look out the window of our lives for a moment below the level of leaders and oligarchs and the slow destruction of the American Experiment and see a country not at economic loggerheads with our centuries old friends, a country that doesn’t seek war, doesn’t purge and kill innocent immigrants, doesn’t corrupt the government, and doesn’t sell power to big money, and see vestiges of the old America, a place of honor and honesty, community and comity, the signs so many of us now yearn for.
(Wow. That may be the longest sentence I’ve ever written.)
For example:
1) I went to a bicycle shop in Berwyn, PA started and run by a guy who instinctively does the right thing. A number of years ago, he started collecting used bicycles, fixing them up and giving them to kids who couldn’t afford them as an incentive for them to go to school.
“Never miss a class for a year and get a bike, helmet and lock” was Steve’s challenge.
It worked. 38 kids had perfect records that first year.
Nowadays he’s moved the idea one step farther; the kids he teaches – and pays – are repairing old bikes, including fancy, big name ones, and selling them for a fraction of their original cost, but still turning a profit. They’re also managing inventory, ordering new parts, and marketing the business under Steve’s mentorship.
Kids staying out of trouble, learning to work, earning money, learning what a business does, and, above all, doing the right thing.
Lucky kids. Lucky bicycle buyers. Lucky Berwyn.
2) The other day I went to a Hyundai dealership in Dowingtown to buy a car. I expected- no dreaded – the usual haggling, being hammered by salesmen who must make their commission no matter how many half-truths and legal lies they tell, and finally, having agreed on a deal, being ushered into a room with the “Finance” person to settle the bill, who turns out to be just another, more obnoxious sales person, this time pushing warrantees and other add-ons.
Instead I got a manager named Jim who promised “None of that stuff” and – OK, this will be hard to believe – kept his promise! There was no pressure, a price that seemed fair to both sides, and I got a car that included some extras I hadn’t expected.
Who’d a thunk it?
3) There’s a bank in my town called National Bank of Malvern, which has been around since the beginning of banking in this country. It’s “National” because in the 1800’s, before there was federal money, a very few, very well vetted banks were given “National” status by the government to print their own money.
With that kind of heritage, you’d think the bank would have the latest software and computer systems, like other nationally renowned banks, and they do. They connect with other banks and financial institutions around the country at the press of a computer key. But they haven’t replaced their staff with software robots and they don’t view their customers as data points.
So when you call to ask a questions, the phone is answered, not by a robot, but by a person -really!- who answers your questions without sending you to India or an AI.
Hard to believe, huh.
Three examples of a culture of integrity and kindness right around the corner.
Quaint, you say? Old Fashioned? From an earlier era? Not really. It’s all around us, from small stores to local school teachers to neighbors on the street. If we just look below the sleaze balls who control this country right now, we’ll see that the basic American culture still exists.
All we have to do is put it back in charge.