Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Trust In A Small Texas Town
By Donovan Baldwin
A few years ago, around 2006, in Gatesville, a small Texas town, I was looking for an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) at a local Wells Fargo Bank. Not seeing one I went inside the bank and asked the bank manager if they had one. He, greeted me kindly, and, unlocking the teller's cage, led me behind the tellers, past the opened vault, unlocked a door overlooking the drive-up banking area and showed me where their one ATM was located.
This little display of trust reminded me the first time, about 1972, I was asked to give a piece of identification for a check/cheque at a local grocery store.
Until then, I had written a check, handed it to the clerk, took my groceries and left...as did every other patron.
However, hot checks had become such an issue, people writing worthless paper, and businesses were losing so much money, they had to begin requesting identification.
In bigger cities this had been a practice even before I encountered it in my small southern city of Pensacola, Florida.
Over the years, we've lost trust.
At least a lot of it.
You know, years ago, before identity theft became such a big issue you could find people's social security numbers on lots of things. Many organizations, such as the U.S. military services figured out that, instead of issuing individual service numbers to each soldier, sailor, or Marine, they could just use social security numbers for identification numbers instead.
Well, because of identity theft, the military has gone back to issuing individual identification that does not use social security numbers as have many other businesses and government agencies.
I believe most of us still WANT to trust one another, but, every day, we are reminded of bad people doing bad things, and, because of those bad things we have to surrender more of our personal data, and freedoms.
Still, trust is one of the most powerful components of freedom.
I'll keep on trusting until I just cannot anymore.
This little display of trust reminded me the first time, about 1972, I was asked to give a piece of identification for a check/cheque at a local grocery store.
Until then, I had written a check, handed it to the clerk, took my groceries and left...as did every other patron.
However, hot checks had become such an issue, people writing worthless paper, and businesses were losing so much money, they had to begin requesting identification.
In bigger cities this had been a practice even before I encountered it in my small southern city of Pensacola, Florida.
Over the years, we've lost trust.
At least a lot of it.
You know, years ago, before identity theft became such a big issue you could find people's social security numbers on lots of things. Many organizations, such as the U.S. military services figured out that, instead of issuing individual service numbers to each soldier, sailor, or Marine, they could just use social security numbers for identification numbers instead.
Well, because of identity theft, the military has gone back to issuing individual identification that does not use social security numbers as have many other businesses and government agencies.
I believe most of us still WANT to trust one another, but, every day, we are reminded of bad people doing bad things, and, because of those bad things we have to surrender more of our personal data, and freedoms.
Still, trust is one of the most powerful components of freedom.
I'll keep on trusting until I just cannot anymore.
Labels: donovan baldwin, Florida, Gatesville, identity theft, Pensacola, texas, trust
