Now, That's Just Mean

I’ve been thinking about few stories that have been in the news recently. You know what? There are some mean folks out there. I’m not talking about violent criminals, who rape and pillage and do all those things violent criminals do. They’re evil, through and through.
But, some folks are just plain mean. Take the story coming out of Norfolk. Seems vandals went to the Ronald McDonald House and broke the arm off of the Ronald McDonald statue. Now why in the world would anyone want to do that? I can’t figure it out. Haven’t these kids and their families suffered enough? The happy face of Ronald has no doubt been a source of encouragement. Now, they look at a less than perfect Ronald and realize that silly grin is just a mask…a mask, perhaps hiding an inner pain., a pain so deep that the poor clown is unable to take off his mask and face head on. To the vandals it may have been just a little joke. But, I’m not laughing.
Some people really don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word “joke.” Take those college students in Alabama. They thought they’d play a joke, so they set a few churches on fire. Gee, I wish I could tell a joke like that. What a gift.
Of course, what happens when you burn down a few churches? Yep, you gotta go burn down some more to keep the police baffled. So, that rash of church burnings in Alabama was just the playful antics of some good ol’ college pranksters. Are they making college students smarter these days or what?
But, the story that really drives home how mean some folks can be has to do with the Henrico County man, Adrian Chelliah. The poor guy is paralyzed from the waist down. So what does some no-good go and do? They steal his wheelchair. That just doesn’t make sense.
You know if a guy goes in and robs a bank and, to protect himself, he ends up shooting a couple dozen folks, as evil as that might be, it kinda does make sense. I’m not saying I’d do it. But, I can’t really say what I do, until I walked a mile (or at least seven tenths of a mile) in the thief’s shoes, which are probably stolen too. I’m sure that if I were brandishing a gun, and got scared, then you better watch out. All bets are off.
But, why go and steal someone’s wheelchair? Now, I guess I’m being a little pre-judgmental. Maybe the guy has a good friend who needs a wheelchair. Maybe he’s sort of a Robin Hood for the disabled. But, I’m betting he’s just plain mean.
I tell you who else is mean. It’s Joe Mahoney. Joe is the newspaper writer who wrote the story. And, if it’s mean to try and make people cry, then Joe is mean. He didn’t just tell the story of a crippled guy who had his wheelchair stolen. Nope, Joe used every trick in the journalistic playbook to try and make the me cry.
Take for instance, the picture on the Times-Dispatch’s website. It shows Mr. Chelliah, sitting in an old dilapidated wheelchair, and the caption reads, “Adrian Chelliah says he hopes his backup wheelchair, which he had kept for spare parts, will last until he can replace one that was recently stolen from his home.”
Now, is that mean or not? Joe had to know readers would chip in, and buy the guy a new wheelchair, which they did (along with listeners to B103.7’s morning show with Jack and Linda). Heck, he could have bought the guy a nice new shiny wheelchair himself, but nope. He’d rather take a picture of a crippled guy in a salvage-yard wheelchair. I don’t think that was very nice.
I know this is not a thought-provoking blog today, but I really couldn’t think of anything to write about, so I thought I’d capitalize on Mr. Chelliah’s stolen wheelchair. Come to think of it, that’s pretty mean.