With very little thought. It is more often than not with hardly any thought at all many seem to do their most thinking. So now you are wondering how you could possibly think without thinking, right? That is about what I was thinking. But I see it all the time. I see people forgetting the basic things we are taught as we grow up. Things we are taught by our parents and the elders in the churches we attend. The simplest way to be respectful to our elders; of course, it should have been “be respectful to everyone”. Some are likely thinking of the old saying, “Respect is earned not given freely at will”. Actually, it is the disrespect that is earned and the respect that is deserved.
If I name my dog Hannibal does that mean I am training my dog to be a killer and a cannibal? Absolutely not, it could mean when I first saw him I thought he looked like a Hannibal and had nothing to do with the villain we all know at all. Nonetheless so many take what they see and read into it their own ideals and beliefs without giving anyone so much as a benefit of the doubt, let alone a chance to explain. Before you know it the word has traveled all around that I have a killer man-eating dog named Hannibal. Everyone who sees me shuns me. Soon I’m being called all hours of the night with prank ugly calls. My property is damaged and my simple life becomes simply hell. As a sub-contractor, I ran into things like this often.
Having long hair and a motorcycle automatically made me a drug-using biker looking for trouble and could not be trusted. Don’t you know, that was great for business? How many men and women alike see a guy walking the street or in a place of business with his pants hanging down showing his boxer shorts and automatically get disgusted and complain under their breath? Yet when a young lady passes by with a nice shapely body skin tight hip-hugging pants and her thongs showing in the back your eyes all of a sudden forget how to blink. It is a wonder you do not get whiplash from trying to be unnoticed taking your multiple peaks. You are not disgusted about anything but perhaps the fact that she is not yours and very possibly never will be.
You are a business owner who provides a service to the public. Naturally, you want what is best for both you and your business. Before you hire someone you do a criminal background check. Seems like a great idea right? Think about this for just a moment. Think back on all the things you have done (illegal) friends or relatives you know that did too and never got caught. Bet you will not find anything about that in a criminal background check. And the young person that just applied for a job did do something wrong and did get caught. So you refuse to hire them. What you just did was not hire someone who did wrong, got caught, was punished, and most likely learned a lesson to hire a person who could very well have done even worse, has never been caught, has not learned a lesson, and may very well make you the next victim.
I never had a dog named Hannibal, but I will bet you thought I did and wondered what I was thinking. But many times over people are thought of in the craziest ways for the even craziest reasons all the time with absolutely no really good reason for it at all. I have almost always had long hair, I have almost always had a motorcycle not one of these things had anything to do with either the person I am or my ability to do my job. Like most or at least some young people I made mistakes, I did things I knew were wrong and even against the law. I was lucky and never got caught. So there is no record. I have passed many background checks. I worked with others who did too, and they stole from the job, came to work drunk or stoned, and did sloppy work yet they had to be okay because they passed a background check. I cannot help but wonder if I am the only one who thinks you might be better off hiring the reformed criminal than the criminal who has not gotten caught. It is with these thoughts I leave you something to think about. Put a little thought into it before you do anything else. The outcome just might surprise you.
Simply my thoughts
Dean Butler
