Is Morality Dead?

 Al Ritter

Opinion 

In my opinion and my one word answer is YES! Integrity, fair play, justice, selflessness, and truth are all gone now in our society. Replaced by corruption, greed, injustice and immoral behavior. 

Let me give you an example and you judge the situation for yourself. A prominent individual whom I will call Mr. Douglas (not his real name) makes an offer on a piece of property and it is accepted by the widow. The settlement date is set for 2 months later. The widow is hurriedly moving and selling items for the move because the house is close to 5000sq ft. You can imagine how monumental a task that is for a widow in her later years. 

The purchaser comes to the woman and offers her $250,000 less than the agreed upon price for the property 7 days before settlement. He tells her if she doesn’t like it she can take him to court! 

She is caught between a rock and a hard place because she has emptied her home at this point and just wants things to be done. She turns the situation over to her attorney and he negotiates with his attorney and they settle on a reduction of $125,000 on the property. In the final days before settlement she falls down the stairs while cleaning out some final things and breaks her pelvis mere days before settlement forcing her to hand over power of attorney to her son for the settlement. 

As you can imagine this doesn’t sit well with the past landscaper as he viewed this widow and her husband who had passed but a few years prior as “family.” 

The new owner contacts the landscaper to continue his service on the property. The landscaper refuses immediately and explains that the widow told him about what he had done days prior to settlement. 

The purchaser replied, “That was just good business.” 

What do you think drives a person to do such a thing to an elderly widow in such a vulnerable situation in her life? I could relate multiple scenarios this man has performed resulting in not only moralistic lapses in judgment but violations of law, but I’ll save that for another time. 

Now I ask you my readers, is this a person that you want as either a neighbor or an employer? Did the landscaper make the right decision to blow Mr. Douglas off? Or was Mr. Douglas right in his actions?