Dec 17 2009
Doing the Right Thing
We all have minor things that happen where we have to decide whether or not to do the right thing. The right thing being what we feel is the moral obligation of our conscience. It is not always what we feel is the right answer but is certainly what should be done. These minor incidents are not as difficult as the decision the man in New Bedford, Massachusetts had pondered. What would you have done?
Stanley Dudek was going through his mother’s things, she had died 10 years earlier, when he happened upon a library book. Whoa! Ten years ago? What the heck took him so long to go through his mother’s things? Was he busy installing water filters? Sounds like procrastination to me. This tells me that he did not need any money that her estate could probably afford him. So, maybe this was not a tough decision at all.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – The book returned to the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts this week wasn’t overdue by a week, a month or even a year. It was nearly a century overdue, and the fine came to $361.35.
“Facts I Ought to Know about the Government of My Country” was supposed to have been returned by May 10, 1910.
Stanley Dudek told the Standard Times newspaper he came across the book while going through things that had belonged to his mother, who died about 10 years ago. He decided that returning the book to the city was the right thing to do.
The overdue book fine was a penny a day in 1910. But Dudek wasn’t asked to pay it.
The library plans to display the book in its special collection.
Um, okay. Now for some real tough decisions.
