The American Moral

Whatever happened to leave a penny, take a penny? I was patiently standing in line at my local Walgreen's when an older lady in her early 60's was being rung up at the register. The elderly lady was purchasing a couple of prescriptions and a candy bar. The Walgreen's cashier asked the elderly lady if she would like to donate to the muscular dystrophy foundation. The elderly lady politely opted out, yet simultaneously the Walgreen's cashier gave her a total of $28.03. The elderly lady was paying by cash and saw a little bucket of pennies to her right with no apparent sign. I suspect the elderly lady thought it was the famous old leave a penny take a penny. As the elderly lady reached her hand in the bucket to pull out .03 pennies she was verbally attacked by the Walgreen's cashier. "Excuse me that's for the muscular dystrophy foundation you can't take money from there," the elderly lady replied "I'm sorry, I didn't know." The Walgreen's cashier rudely interrupted her before she could finish her apology stating "what did you think it was? I just asked you if you wanted to donate to the muscular dystrophy foundation, that money is to fund sick people." Now mind you there was only about .12 pennies in the bucket, no silver or dollar bills. The elderly lady scrambled through her purse and found the .03 pennies. You can tell the elderly lady felt ashamed and guilty for thinking otherwise despite the fact there was no sign on the bucket. I was next in line and the Walgreen's cashier asked if I would like to donate, I politely declined as well and told her "maybe you should put on the bucket that, the money is for the muscular dystrophy foundation." The cashier replied "the flyer is right there and I have to ask everyone to donate." Honestly by this point I was beside myself. So I picked up the bucket and ran!!! Just kidding, just kidding!!! No I grabbed the flyer that was underneath and placed it in front of the bucket where it could be readily seen. It got me thinking what has happened to the moral of the American People? To see an elderly lady being accused in an essence of stealing .03 pennies from a charitable bucket. Not to mention whatever happened to leave a penny, take a penny?

Of course this happened after I was told by my highly sociable 10 year old son on our last Walmart shopping trip that he asked a Walmart employee "If a mom came in and bought a gallon of milk with change and she was a penny short would you still sell it to her?" The Walmart employee without hesitation told my son no! Of course he was upset and  informed me that it was plain wrong. He is RIGHT! The truth is its hard to raise your children with morals and values, when thats what they see in public. With that weighing on my mind as well, you have to beg the question what happened to the decency of assisting one another with a couple of pennies, or even just having respect for one another? The truth is the average American family is struggling, often times living paycheck to paycheck. Which is probably the reason there was only pennies in that bucket. So I say unto you, try to bring the leave a penny, take a penny back to your local stores in your area. Lets unite in paying it forward. A simple chain that is now obsolete makes all the difference in helping out our fellow citizens in the time of need.