AS I SEE IT...

Disgust and Loathing

The day after Christmas I like to go to Radio Shack and other retail outlets to look for extraordinary buying opportunities – think SALES. This year I did NOT find any extraordinary sales at Radio Shack, but I did stumble upon a frightening dichotomy of beliefs and attitudes between the stores opportunity to make sales and individual shoppers’ attitudes surrounding soon to be made purchases.

Radio Shack sells long range 2-way radios that require a license issued by the FCC. While discussing the possibility of purchasing a specific GMRS 2-way radio the customer clearly stated he had no intention of buying the required FCC license. The store manager then informed him that since he clearly stated he did not intend to purchase the required FCC license then he could not sell him the GMRS 2-way radio. The customer, obviously annoyed, then asked the store manager why he shouldn’t just go to Target to buy the 2-way radio where the Target employees would sell him a GMRS 2-way radio with no questions asked. The Radio Shack store manager explained that the FCC license cost $75.00 for a five year renewable license to operate the GMRS System. Note: The amount stated above is the GMRS license fee at the time of this writing. However, I recommend that you check with the FCC at: http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/personal/generalmobile/ to verify current fees.

I listened to the customer justify his reasons for not buying the legally required license. The customer clearly stated that since everyone else, including the President of the United States of America, can pick and choose which laws they will abide by then he should be able to also.

Of course, I don’t agree with the customer, and I’m amazed that the Radio Shack store manager chose to lose a sale to abide by the law. Maybe there is hope for humanity...

This exchange between the customer and the Radio Shack store manager serves to fuel my belief that the morals of everyday Americans have been adversely impacted by the Bush Administration.

If any of you reading this Blog entry have been reading my Blog for any length of time, then you’re certainly aware of my Trickle-Down Theory. Granted my Tickle-Down Theory is somewhat related to the fact that “people, like water, take the path of least resistance”, but either way that doesn’t make it right.

I’m amazed that sells of these GMRS 2-way radios are still permitted to the general public, especially given the micro-management style and paranoid nature of the Bush Administration.

Do any of you see the relationship between Bush going to war with Iraq based on bad, or false intelligence, or spying on American citizens without following long held, legal requirements to obtain the proper warrants, and some American citizens not following long held, legal requirements to obtain a proper radio licenses? Well, I do, and I find it very disturbing.

I was raised to believe that two wrongs don’t make a right.

I don’t know what is happening to the morals of Americans, but as I see it we may be fighting a multitude of wars simultaneously on terror, drugs, and poverty, etc... but we aren’t winning any moral victories.

What has happened to everyday common, ordinary goodness, decency, and respectability?

What has become of a person’s individual conscience?

What has become of the measure of accepted standards between right and wrong?

Sure, this was just one customer in Radio Shack justifying his intended illegal actions, but I also believe where there is smoke there is fire. What are the odds that many more people believe and act as this one Radio Shack customer? It’s terrifying, and it’s wrong to break the law just because you can.

Can you hear me, Mr. President?

Licensing will not prevent sinister use of GMRS 2-way radios, and I doubt that licensing can cause illegal activity to be traced back to one individual user, either. But I’d be willing to bet if this one customer is so willing to break this law, then he is likely to be willing to break other laws.

Do any of you agree with me that lawlessness is not a good thing in any society?

I really miss the days when I could simply just go shopping without being confronted with the growing moral decay in American society. Damn…