A Nightmare in Lancaster!
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1/27/2014
I have lived in and visited many places over my 60 years, and Lancaster, PA, is by far my least favorite. The crime is high, the air pollution is bad, urban blight is all around, there are virtually no pretty or scenic areas anywhere in the city, and the traffic is miserable.
But the WORST aspect of Lancaster is the prevailing attitude of so many of the people who live there. That attitude can best be summed up in one word: NARCISSISM. In other words, a high percentage of Lancaster inhabitants seem to care only about themselves, and to heck with everybody else.
There are some truly wonderful, caring, kind, empathetic, and giving people in Lancaster. I went to practical nursing school there years ago. My class of fellow nursing students, who deeply honored me by electing me their class president, were wonderful, as were the nursing instructors. I don't want my review to cast a bad light on any of them.
But sadly, the good-hearted people in Lancaster seem to be far outnumbered. I found this to be the case during my years of living there. Although I moved away from Pennsylvania eleven years ago, I still have good friends and loved ones living in the area, and according to their most recent experiences, the prevailing "don't care" attitude in Lancaster is as bad now as it ever was, and maybe even worse.
A case in point: two days ago my daughter, who lives on the west coast but was visiting Lancaster, was in the Park City Center mall with her college student daughter, her teenage disabled son, and my first great-grandchild, who is less than a year old. Suddenly my disabled grandson slipped in someone's spilled soft drink and fell, taking the stroller with the baby strapped inside over with him. At first, mistakenly thinking that her son was having a seizure, my daughter did not notice that the stroller with the baby had tipped over and was in the process of falling. As my 22-year-old granddaughter and my daughter were trying to help my disabled 15-year-old grandson, the baby was in danger of falling on his head... and.... although they were surrounded on all sides by crowds of people of every age and race, many of whom could easily have reached out a hand to stop the stroller from going all the way down to the floor, NOT ONE PERSON made a move to help. Everyone just stood there and watched the whole thing as though they were at the movies!
When my daughter realized that the baby's stroller was tipped over and that he was almost on his head, she immediately righted the stroller and checked the baby to be sure he was all right, while my granddaughter continued trying to assist her fallen brother. Then my daughter and granddaughter attempted to help my grandson, who had sat up by then, to get up off the floor, but he could not stand. Meanwhile, the baby was crying... and none of the bystanders in that crowd of people made a move to help or even to say, "Is there anything I can do?"
Two mall maintenance employees, who had arrived with their buckets and mops to clean up the spilled drink just as my grandson slipped and fell in it, were also standing by and doing nothing to help. My daughter, seeing that the mall workers had walkie-talkies on their belts, asked them to call for a wheelchair for her son. (My grandson has low muscle tone as part of his birth defects, so being unable to stand and walk due to the stress and shock of an unexpected fall is not uncommon with him. At such times he needs a wheelchair.)
The mall maintenance workers made no move to respond to my daughter's request. Not only did they not call to request a wheelchair -- or better yet, go and get one themselves -- they actually started joking and laughing with each other, as though they found the situation FUNNY!
My daughter told me that she felt then like she was in a horror movie, where no one around her was human! My granddaughter was so upset she could barely speak!
Sadly, I know this is not an isolated thing for Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I lived there for more than a decade and I ran across this weird uncaring attitude quite a few times. I firmly believe that most people on this planet are good at heart. I also believe that most people will respond with friendliness and kindness, if you are friendly and kind to them, first.
But it does not seem to work that way in Lancaster, the city without a heart.
Lynda | Timberon, NM