Political Morsels and Other Droppings

After months of waiting… literally, I had a couple windows installed on my house along with some work done on the exterior of my house a week and a half ago.  However, the contractor tried to take some shortcuts, and did not install the trim that I wanted on my house.  I had my handyman over last week to help me hang some doors that I had worked on and he took a look at the work done by this contractor and pointed out some issues that I did not spot.  Needless to say, I was even more displeased with the guy.  So, I sent him an email about all of the problems I had and the items listed in the contract that he did not follow.  He showed up yesterday and we went over them.  I even pointed out where he could purchase the renewable material that I want for my trim. (D’s going green.)  Now, this man had told a couple different lies as to why, during the several month wait for the windows, as to why he didn’t contact me.  If there is one thing that pisses me off more than anything else, it is dishonesty and the lack of accountability that people seem to have these days.  This contractor is a poster child.

Conversely, on Tuesday, my twenty-two year old dishwasher (original to the house) decided that it no longer wanted to live.  So I went out and ordered a new one.  Being that I live pretty close to the warehouse, two gentlemen greeted me at the door, first thing yesterday morning.  They pulled out the old one, to where I was able to take in the glory of seeing that some mouse/mice decided that the dishwasher insulation was a toilet. Let’s just say floors are now very, very clean. The men were polite and professional.  However, the morning delivery and installation wouldn’t be the only time I’d see these guys. I ran the new dishwasher and found that it was broken.  I checked everything, including the water supply and shut off valves, consulted the manual and even looked online for a solution.  Eventually, I was able to get a hold of the dispatcher and the men were back out at my house eleven hours after they had first arrived.  They checked for everything and we all agreed that the dishwasher would have to be replaced. Unfortunately, they had to take this one with them and I’m not able to use my sink until the replacement arrives.  However, that’s not without the attempt to plug them.  The driver, who was also the one that did most of the installation work, felt bad about leaving me without a working sink and showed up today, on his day off to try and fix the situation so I would have a working sink.  Well, he got one the output, where the dirty water goes.  However, whenever I ran the water, there was still the leak from where the water intake pipe to the dishwasher is supposed to be.  This man was very apologetic, but lets face it, it wasn’t his fault.  This just means that what little dishes I do create are going to be washed in a bathroom sink until the new dishwasher shoes up.  It also means that I get to enjoy some really good Chinese takeout.  What surprised me was that this man made himself accountable for something that wasn’t even his fault.  He even refused my tip when he left after trying to fix the leak issue, saying he should have taken care of it last night.  Now that’s just honorable. That’s another attribute that is very rarely seen in today’s society.

Today, we have Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill who don’t carry half of the traits that I saw in one man who delivers and installs appliances for a living. These people don’t feel like their accountable to their constituents.  The only Republican Representative who seems to feel that way is a man from Louisiana, Ahn “Joseph” Cao, who if you’ll recall, was the only one who voted on the Health Care Bill.  He even stated that he probably wouldn’t get reelected, but he wanted to do right for his constituents.  That’s right, the man might not get reelected because he did the right thing.  Crazy, isn’t it?

We need better accountability of the decision makers. This isn’t just those who hold elected offices, but throughout the government.  We need people who actually give a rat’s ass about the big picture, about the people of this country.  We need less people like my lying contractor, and more folks like the appliance dude. (I never got his name… but I will be calling in with a rave review to his boss this week.) We need more people who care.  We need more people who will admit to being wrong or for screwing up and less people who decide to weave webs.

Where did honesty, integrity and accountability go?  Seriously.