I am currently working with Reece Capps to redesign CaseyCase.com, and make it a bit more organized and user-friendly, and we should be done with it very soon! That is one of many reasons I haven’t posted much since Christmas. I have lots of big announcements coming this year!

Also, some of you have been asking me about my book, which I postponed toward the end of 2010. Right now, I am hoping to get it out in February, but I don’t want to make another big to-do about it like last time until it is totally finished!

So, check back soon for my all-new setup! The picture above is a sneak peek of what is coming.

The week of Thanksgiving, Maranda and I experienced firsthand a level of cruelty at her job that I haven’t seen in a long time.

Maranda has been working at a dentist’s office here in OKC. Actually, it’s in Edmond. If you know anything about Edmond, it’s a rich place. I made a joke the other day that the front page of the Edmond paper was probably about somebody losing their top hat and monocle.

The people who Maranda works with are not poor either. Several drive luxury cars, and this place rakes in serious, serious cash every day.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a poor lady named Martha walked into the office begging for help. She was literally standing there, bleeding from the mouth, and she begged them to fix her mouth. The procedure she needed would have cost $200. She only had $20. She promised, through her tears, to give them the $20 and pay for the rest whenever she could.

They turned her away.

As this was going on, Maranda called me. I was in a meeting with Jordi Mullor about an upcoming project that I have talked about here before – Independence Development. She told me what was happening, and the three of us decided to pay for the procedure.

Fortunately, the lady was still outside. Maranda caught her and told her we would pay for her. As Maranda was getting the money out to pay, her bosses stopped her.

They refused to let us pay for the procedure.

They told Maranda, “We can’t let you do that.” She asked the very pertinent question – “You can’t or you won’t?”

Their answer – “We won’t.”

Fortunately, Maranda had already scheduled the procedure, so according to their own rules they had to do the procedure at that point. But, since Martha had promised the $20, they made Maranda pay the $20, because someone working in the office STOLE MARTHA’S $20 BILL. How do we know, because she still wanted to pay it, so Maranda took it, sat it behind the desk, and turned around, and it was gone. The only people in that particular area were folks who work there. Neither Martha nor any other patients could have possibly gotten to it.

Maranda paid the $20 – in change. Mostly pennies. Seriously. Just to make a point.

Why This Angers Me (as if I need to explain)

Now, they did the procedure, which was what we were looking to do, but only because Maranda intervened. Had she not, Martha would have walked out of there bleeding and crying, in almost unbearable pain, while a half dozen people who had the power and ability to help stood and watched.

If that is not the pure definition of cruelty, I don’t know what is.

A medical office does not have the obligation to help everyone who comes in asking for help. I understand that they need to make money. However, they also don’t have an obligation to stop other people from helping someone. One of the people Maranda works with even said, “I wish I could help people like that, but I don’t have the money.” She drives a Lexus.

Another person at the office said they can’t let people help pay for things because other people might find out about it. Seriously? Do you think Martha was going to go out and buy a billboard in Edmond that said, “Free Dental Care!”?

It is shameful that not helping someone who comes in bleeding and crying was standard procedure. That shouldn’t even be an option on the table, for a multimillion dollar enterprise. And who is so greedy as to steal a poor person’s last bit of cash?

I hope that whoever stole Martha’s last $20 can’t sleep at night. And in my anger, I prayed that the place would shut down. I seriously did. Then I asked for forgiveness, and asked God to show them how cruel and apathetic they are (but I still won’t be sad if it shuts down).

As of today, Maranda no longer works there.
Please don’t ever be like this. Don’t allow the world to let your heart fall below 0 degrees. If you could stand and watch as someone bleeds and cries out in pain and choose not to do something about it, then you need to re-evaluate your entire life. Don’t let the fact that no one else is helping – or that someone might get upset if you help or the fact that it might break the rules or cause you an inconvenience later if you help – keep you from helping others who need it. People wonder what is going wrong with America, or for that matter, the world, and why there are so many people suffering. Maybe it’s because the people around them do nothing.

By the way, I’m money to put my money where my mouth is on this – in a big way. But that’s for another post.