Apathy

By Roy Mason, first published in Aspects.

I really didn’t want to write this. Perhaps, if I had waited, someone else would have put pen to paper, then there would have been no need for me to write about it. But then if THEY don’t do it, and I don’t, who will? Apathy is an insidious disease, it is infectious and it can spread throughout the community, it can even afflict a whole nation of people. Yet if we all believe someone else will do something nothing ever will get done.

Some years ago the water stopped coming out of the tap in our house. Enquires with a neighbour elicited that they too had noticed the lack of water. So we all waited; THEY, in this case the water company, THEY would surely know about this and would do something. Twenty-four hours later we still had no water and THEY had not appeared in the village to fix the problem. Further enquiries around the village showed that other households were not affected only those in the one particular street were affected. Once the water company was advised certain households had lost their supply they put in measures to alleviate the distress.

More recently the lights on the pelican crossing became defective by turning red every two minutes. The resultant disruption to traffic caused massive tailbacks in both directions along the A590, and most probably many a bad temper, until THEY, this time the Highway’s Agency, came along and disabled the lights as a temporary measure. But how were THEY to know there was a problem? Only when someone showed an initiative and made contact did THEY become aware there was a problem. The lights stayed out till Sunday when a technician restored them to working order, however it was only a temporary fix for by Monday the lights were not working again and pedestrians had to run the gauntlet of the speeding traffic. Still out on Wednesday with no apparent action in hand to put them into operational condition an effort was made to stimulate the appropriate authority. Not the Borough Council, not Cumbria County Council’s but Amey Mouchel finally accepted responsibility for the equipment. That was till they were requested to give a date for the repair; the answer received was that depended on THEIR sub-contractor. At least then someone had been motivated for the lights were working again by the time the children came out of school.

These are just two examples of apathy where we accept the inconvenience. until a member of the community gets tired of waiting for someone else to fix it. This village is fortunate, residents maintain the Aspects magazine and the village website, a Parish Council, a Residents Association and not least St. Peter’s Church to mention only a few of the active associations. These are community projects their success depends on the villagers support. Really we should all be proactive and help to keep the village spirit alive and apathy at bay. If something needs to be done why not get on and do it, don’t wait for somebody else!

PS - if the lights take longer than twenty-five seconds to respond to a pedestrian’s command, phone up Amey Mouchel on 0845 600 1628 and complain.