To Lay or Not to Lay (Blame)

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly,"

Said Kanu Virani, a medical examiner for the Oakland County, Michigan. Having completed extensive state-mandated training, he knows what he is talking about. Did other municipal Bay City authorities enjoy even a fraction thereof?

Sure, we could hold the utility company responsible for...what, looking out for its bottom line? Economy the way it is, er...isn't it a good thing? Any a shareholder would agree -- unless and until they are hit with a lawsuit filed by the concerned relations. Given the deceased had those. But if so, just where were they when he was struggling with bills? Clipping cash to them with fingers too frostbitten to quite be up to the task? And if they do come out of the frosty woodwork, should they be given their say in court -- or have they lost that chance along with the 93-year-old's electricity?

Or are we, grimacing inside the comfort of our comfortably heated apartments, houses, pied-de-terres on the Malibu coast, to pass judgment on the social workers? Shouldn't there have been someone who had paid attention? Shouldn't there be laws punishing those that have not?

The city is sure it has done nothing wrong. Certainly, the concerned neighbors would never own up to the crime of indifference. After all, it is nothing like involuntary manslaughter. How were THEY to have known anything had been wrong?

There are many who could be blamed, and there would be just as many excuses. So, perhaps, all there's left to do is just to look to those near us and see that what could have been prevented -- is.