Burn Baby Burn

A house fire in Tennessee has recently lit up the web with left versus right ideological arguments about personal responsibility and other such stupidity that seems to be on the rise in America.

I'm not sure I even have the energy to throw my opinion into the ring here.  But basically, some dude lives in a county where there is a $75 fee for fire protection services.  The aforementioned dude did not pay this fee, and unfortunately for him, his house caught fire.  Fire crews rushed to the scene in response to the 911 call, and once they arrived, they stood there, and watched the house burn to the ground.  The only time they turned on their hoses was to protect the neighbors home, because that guy had paid his fire protection fee.

The hose Nazis were not even moved into action when the unfortunate homeowner offered to pay any fees or costs associated with putting out the fire.  They simply did nothing, despite having the equipment, tools and ability to stop the fire.  They were only following orders.

Right wingers have jumped on this as an example of how personal responsibility is king, and those who do not take responsibility deserve everything they get.  The left has described the issue with the obvious human element to this.  The fact that the system is okay with this level of indifference to human suffering and personal tragedy is pretty sick in my opinion.

I see it as the encapsulation of what's wrong with America today.  The right wing increasingly seem completely ambivalent to the human costs of any argument.  Which is especially ironic when so many of them also profess to be Christian.  Libertarians and Tea Baggers bleat on about small government and every man for himself, until it comes to a hot button issue like abortion, when they appear to want the government at national, state, and local level to intervene in personal liberty and a woman's right to choose.

The issue, at it's core, is a departure from the state of mind, 'do unto others...'  We are in danger of becoming a petty and small society, where everyone cares only about themselves, and no one looks at the bigger picture.  We dump trillions of dollars into our military, while our roads fall apart, our schools produce ignorant and uneducated people, and allow stupid small minded people to set up a system whereby a person can lose their home to a fire, because they didn't pay for the fire service to come.

And let's not even get on the subject of health care.  As long as people are relatively healthy, and can afford their health insurance, they seem to have little stomach for making the tough decisions necessary to rebuild our failing health care system so that every American can enjoy quality service, and not have to lose their home and everything they have if they get sick.

My big question to America is this.  If we are going to campaign for prayer in schools, and have God in the Pledge and on our money, shouldn't we at least begin with REAL valuing of other human beings, and show actual compassion and love for our fellow human beings?  Isn't that essentially the message of Christ?  Or are we just becoming a nation of selfish hypocrites?