LETTER: More Locke than Hobbes in Key Case

Letter to the Editor:

From: James C. Johnston Jr.

Re: theft of a key from an Individual Working for the U. S. Post Office in Franklin

I would like to assure my fellow citizens of the City known as The Town of Franklin that we are not going to Hell in a Hand-Basket. We are, and remain, one of the safest towns in the United States in which to live and do business. As far as this “locking the door thing” goes, I can remember some old curmudgeons gathered at one of those monster family cook-outs back about 1950 growling, “Back when I was a kid, you could go out and not lock your door. Today, you can’t trust anybody.”

These self-same old grumps were also aware of growing numbers of “The Others” in our communities ranging from Upton, Mass to the Mid-Cape. My mother told us not to pay attention to these self-styled-old-sages who lacked a wide view of the world. Most of these “Old-Timers” of my youth were born between 1870 and 1910, and they were grumpy about everybody under 35 years old, because, “They had it easy.”

By the way, it always made good sense to me to lock your door. I never thought that it was a good idea to let the general public to have general access to your property even if you happen to be at home. Keeping your door lock is a very sensible way to control access to the privacy of your home.

Now getting back to the Old Grumps, as far as I knew, most of these “Old Duffers” sat around most of the day gassing away with their contemporaries about the sad state of the world. It was then that I resolved not to turn into one of these really obnoxious, ancient, and chronically unhappy and disapproving old-age jerks who hated everything new and young people who were considered by then to be defective in thought, generally morality, and action.

These same “Grumpy Old-Timers” were generally accepting of: chronic racism, xenophobia, distrust of all things “new”, the display of the old Confederate “Stars and Bars”, the general racism in life and in popular motion picture film vis-à-vis “First Americans”, and basically anybody who was different in religious beliefs, ethnic origins, color, and in more ways than be comfortably listed here. They also hated the popular music of the late 1940’s, the 1950’s, and as far as the popular music of the 1960’s onward forget it!

Now let’s get back to the theft of that key to the large mail boxes in Franklin. Is this a serious crime? Yes, it is fraught with implications of the theft of important mail, but is this one theft a crime wave? I really don’t think so. I am sorry that a racial component in this particular crime is so emphasized. The biggest crimes in this country involving the largest cash thefts are not committed by poor persons at the bottom of the sociological spectrum. These crimes are committed mostly by “Men-in-Suits.”

We know that some members of the most privileged classes of this nation, some of whom have very high political connections, have been given billions of dollars by super-wealthy individuals from nations not generally friendly to the interests of the United States. Now, the crime of fraud committed against trusting ordinary people seems to go on at a fierce pace and also seems to largely go unpunished to a very large degree.

Now before I get carried away to the country of “Old-Curmudgeon-Hood” let me just say that these United States is a pretty good place to live in. I know that there is nowhere else on the planet I would rather abide in. Generally things have gotten a lot better during the span of my 80 year lifetime. People are a lot more liberal in there general outlook on life. On the whole, racism both subtitle and obvious, seems to be in great decline. Racist words, which were an accepted part of common language, have disappeared from the vocabularies of most people. People are a lot nicer to each other these days. In Franklin, one of the best places to live in the whole world, I run into dozens of people every week who are nothing but kind. They hold doors for you if entering a place of commerce or restaurants. They are mostly smiling and somewhat cheery as they go about their business in a busy way.

Most people are pleasant generally speaking whenever you meet them. If you read the annual Franklin crime reports for the past fifty years, criminal activity is practically nil. Such records can be found on-line. Consider the size of the population in the City/Town of Franklin, and then look at the tiny number of individuals that actually break the laws of our large community. I know that I do not feel any general paranoia regarding my general safety.

I love the young people with whom I have been involved during my 34 years as a professional educator in the Franklin Community. And the young people I have seen and inter-acted with about the town/city since I have retired in 2000, seem as fine a group of young people as one can find anywhere. Franklin is a good place, and the citizens of this community are a fine bunch of people as are the vast majority of the folks who live in this country.

By the way, I have always locked my door. It prevents embarrassing situations from happening especially after you may have taken a shower.

Yours truly,

James C. Johnston Jr.

August 9, 2024