Decline in values on display every day
By Alonzo Weston
As a child of the ‘70s who just turned 70 years old, I see what a long, strange trip it’s been so far.
Working as a greeter at a large store for the past few months, I see our voting or non-voting public up close. My job is to check purchase receipts as there is a lot of theft. Some shoppers want to blame it on the economy. I blame a decline in moral character. One woman caught stealing a week ago had a 5-year-old daughter telling her it was wrong to steal. The mother told the child to shut up.
It’s the older adults and the children who gladly show you their receipts. Some, not all, younger adults throw the receipt at you or cuss you out for asking. Older adults gladly show you their receipt and want to carry on a conversation. Children show the receipts because it’s an adult thing to do for them.
A part-time greeter job suits me fine as a former reporter. I still get to see a cross-section of society. I see familiar, friendly faces to be sure but there is plenty of rudeness and theft. I had one kid accuse me of only checking Black people for receipts. Trust me, I dressed him down hard enough to see him leave the store with his tail between his sagging jeans.
We have security guards and police officers at my store because of theft. Folks steal handicapped scooters and shopping baskets and complain when there is neither for use.
As a child of the ‘70s, I’ve seen mini-skirts but none like I see now with the nylon hemlines that barely cover anything. I see adults wearing stupid slogans advertising porn sites and racism on T-shirts. A security guard told me that there are a few Aryans who come into the store. I miss their signs and tattoos.
Yes, at 70 I see life passing me by at light speed. Many of my childhood icons are passing away like Kris Kristofferson and James Earl Jones. Am I to be left with the likes of P. Diddy and R. Kelly?
I tried to watch “Saturday Night Live” a few weeks ago and turned it off shortly after the monologue. What once was cutting-edge comedy now seems grossly sophomoric. The reporters I knew like Walter Cronkite who only reported the facts are now replaced by radical right- and left-wing shock jocks.
Some folks want to ban books that were a part of my school reading curriculum like “Huck Finn” and “Call of the Wild.” Yo man, what? Those are classics. It’s further evidence of a dumbing down of our society.
Folks my age can blame dementia or senility. What excuse is there for willful ignorance and stupidity?
