Remember “Service”?

When I was a kid I remember you couldn’t pull into a gas station without having the attendant wash your vehicles windows. That was just the way it was done. It was part of the service at a service station. On a recent trip to Lakeview, Oregon, this man in the picture above, said those same words. I said I wanted to take a picture of him washing my car window and he said to me “that’s just part of what we do”. I’m not trying to knock service stations because most don’t do that anymore, not at all. But this got me to thinking. Do we even understand what the term “Service” means anymore? I wonder.

Take for instance “Public Service”, that should mean to serve the public right? But instead today that service is not about the public but instead about serving special interests, different groups, parties or platforms that really don’t mean all that much to the “PUBLIC”.

Wouldn’t it be nice to pull up the gas station again and have someone wash your window? Wouldn’t it be equally as refreshing to put someone in office who cared more about what you think than what the “Groups” think?

I’ve got a crazy idea. Maybe it’s time for the public to redefine what it sees as “Public Service”.

No Comments

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  Burton Keeble October 27, 2008 at 12:50 pm

  This sounds like a selection from: “Bob Scheiffer’s America.”

  I agree with it.

  btw, why do you need my e-mail address?