IT’S hard to fathom how morally bankrupt a person must be to steal from charity.
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How desperate and gnawing must your addiction be, how hollowed out must your self-esteem be?
How could any decent-thinking human see a charity tin full of money to support cancer victims and their families, and decide that it should go anywhere but where it’s intended?
The cowardly leech who slithered in to the South Hay Hotel on Monday morning and grabbed charity tins from the bar, also escaping with the pub’s safe, will not likely feel a modicum of guilt.
Anyone able to commit such a cold-blooded act is incapable of feeling an unselfish emotion like guilt.
He should at least know this.
By stealing from charity, you’ve committed one of the lowest acts humanly imaginable.
You haven’t just stolen from cancer victims, you’ve stolen from the entire Hay community.
You’ve stolen some of their faith in each other.
But the Hay community, and every community in the Riverina, is far stronger than its weakest link.
There was similar outrage in August 2015, when thieves ripped more than $2000 of charity money from the roof of the same pub.
And then something extraordinary happened.
Within days, more than $8000 flowed in from locals keen to make a statement – “we won’t be defined by the actions of a few”.
Among the donors were a nine-year-old girl who emptied her piggy bank of $200, a patron who donated $1500 from a pub jackpot, a young boy who donated $300 from a school cake stall and dozens of farmers bringing in cartons of beer and loads of firewood for a fundraising raffle
Heartless thefts like the ones at the South Hay Hotel will always get the headlines.
Newspapers, like their readers, are compelled by the worst of humanity.
But we should be equally compelled by the best of humanity.
Each day in every corner of our region, unsung heroes are toiling quietly in the shadows to make their patch of the Riverina a better place.
In the face of a seemingly endless torrent of negative news, it’s a fact well worth remembering.