There’s a pothole on your street that brings Grand Canyon to mind. What do you do?
It’s not really the size of the Grand Canyon, but it’s big enough to bust a rim on, and someone swerving to avoid it could cause an accident.
What do you do? You call the Public Works Department and report it, right? That’s what you’re supposed to do. But what if you live in one of those cities or counties with civil servants who take forever to act on complaints, or don’t act at all?
A can-do sort of person would buy a bucket of asphalt or a bag of concrete at the hardware store and fill it himself, or maybe just shovel in some rocks or sand for a temporary fix. If the guys in charge of maintaining the streets ever do show up, they can re-fix the hole the way they want to. In the meantime, problem solved.
Citizens used to think and act that way. Now we spend months carping about how long a problem has gone uncorrected that we could have corrected ourselves at any time. We don’t even think of fixing it ourselves. If someone suggests that we do, we become indignant and point out that it’s not our responsibility.
That might explain what’s behind a young ballplayer’s injury on a run to first base during a World Series elimination game at the Ford Park Entertainment Complex in Beaumont this past June.
The boy stepped in a hole next to the first base bag and apparently tore his ACL, prompting his mother, Blanca Chavez, to sue Comcast Spectacor and Nations Baseball Tournament Association for $1 million in damages.
The hole shouldn’t have been there and a boy from the opposing team had already stepped in it and fallen. Umpires apparently did nothing about it, but neither did team coaches or stadium staff. And neither did parents or other spectators until later.
Surely, someone could have scooped up some dirt from outside the field and filled the hole.