My Question of the Day: You have a relative who has the inside track on who is up next for a heart transplant. S/he tells you they just got a heart that matches your blood type and the blood type of
your enemy. You are single with no children. Your enemy is a parent of five and your relative says that s/he may have a better chance of not rejecting the organ, but it will definitely go to you if you
want it. What do you do?

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The Question: You pay for cable/satellite TV each month, but you discover your neighbor has an illegal connection. What do you do?

My 2 Cents: When I taught 8th grade American Studies in Tulsa, OK, I had to explain over and over again the difference between snitching and exposing bad behavior. My students were so indoctrinated by their neighborhood culture that they’d rather all suffer for the bad behavior of one student than to expose him/her and let that person deal with the consequences of his/her actions alone.

A snitch is a person who is involved in the same bad behavior in which you’re involved, but the snitch doesn’t tell on him/herself. The snitch only rats you out.

A person who exposes bad behavior can do so with a clear conscience, because he/she is not a part of the bad behavior but is being negatively impacted by the bad behavior.

Now let’s look at this in relation to the Question of the Day. If my neighbor has an illegal cable/satellite connection, does that affect me? Is it my responsibility to inform someone of the illegal connection? Do I just mind my business and let them do their thing?

If I’m paying for cable, and my neighbor has an illegal connection, it is my business. I’ll first ask him/her to sever the connection. If that doesn’t happen,�I will report him/her.

Read what Comcast in Southern Florida had to say about how these with illegal connections”costs local governments millions of dollars in lost revenue…sometimes directly affecting the funding of local community assistance programs” and how “[i]llegal hookups can cause signal leakage for an entire neighborhood and result in poor picture quality for all subscribers in the area…” This article was written in 2004. With the way our society is going today, do you imagine that illegal cable connections have gone down or up? With this poor economy, how do you feel when your neighborhood community center, library, pool, etc. are closed down because of no- or low-funding? When you cable company raises your bill another $5 or $10 every so often, how do you feel?

Did you know that stealing cable is a federal crime? It’s not a local crime or a state crime, it’s considered a crime against the federal government; a felony. Read what Legal Match has to say about this.

Theft of any kind, regardless of how benign it seems, hurts all of us. They may not break into your house today, like the did the people down the street, but how much have you come out-of-pocket for an alarm system for your home to off-set the chance of that happening to you? You don’t shoplift, but you’ve seen the cost of food, clothing, electronics and everything else steadily creep up to off-set the billions of dollars lost when other people steal. Have you ever been embarrassed by the “BOING! We’re sorry, you have activated Wal-Mart’s inventory control…” when you just left the register and paid for all your items?

I think you get my point.

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Take a few moments to check out the tweets from Twitter on this subject:

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PhatCrayonz I would do nothing. That’s their business.

jazzzyone Funny u ask bc I’m going thru it w/ SatelliteGuy today. Hmm. I would neg judge my neighbor. Might report depending on mood.

phaeth that’s the norm in most neighborhoods…it is what it is

iamvictorious See how I can get in on that.

rodman5 nothing. none of my biz if he is bad he will pay in the end. bad ppl always do

TankaBar_JasonD I’ll just let them be it is called honor amongst thieves

ishadowaddict I wouldn’t reprt..not my biz

drgoss I’m gonna ask him/her how did they get it and if they don’t wanna put me on then I’m calling the cops on them lol

ShalondaGordon Today I continue to pay for my service.. Now back in the day..in college.. I would have totally hooked on.. Keep smiling

couturefit ask tht sob for the hook-up!!

queenesther Is my neighbor black? If so, that’s what some would call reparations…

rahsheen Mind my business? LOL. Unless they are splitting my line or something.

evelynwrites I’d let my neighbor’s conscience deal with him. Everything comes out in the wash, as my grandma used to say.

PROTECTED TWEETER ..I honestly wouldn’t say anything..b/c karma will get them..

DerekIsNormal I would go on about my business and keep it to myself. It’ll soon come to light what he’s doing. It always does.

MrsSexyMocha ask them to hook you up!

tclarkusa I’m telling. No Mr. Rogers Neighborhood here, I’m tell—ing Comcast, etal

PROTECTED TWEETER i’d ask how he managed that & if he could get me the hook up, lol

iMark_Rich u ask dem how to get the hook up

Quintessence_T ask 4 the hook-up

chuck don’t do anything…unless he’s getting free phone and internet too..then we gotta talk

acmeek Nothing, but I never let them borrow any sugar. Lol.

Pettra88 Ask the cable company to check all the connections in my area-dry snitch.

IamRah Mind my business…

Write_Of_Fusion Make sure they know that I know about the illegal setup, and see what favors they can do for me LOL..but I wouldn’t rat on them

PROTECTED TWEETER I would do absolutely nothing.

BLKMGK Nothing. As long as he’s not stealing my connection, I’m cool.

soulrebelJ Charge him $10/month.

shargrove tell your neighbor you’re going Fiber Optic, when the cable company comes to collect & disconnect,…

AlwaysSilky Karma has a way of coming back – The Universe takes care of evildoers far better than WE ever could!

PROTECTED TWEETER ask her for the hook up. lol

Grimsta2003 I wouldn’t do nothing. The hood in me would be to ask for a hookup but my smarts say no lol. That’s his biz.

ibster My current neighbours? I grass them right up. I’d also plant a kilo of cocaine in their front garden & call the cops.

atane Nothing. It’s none of my business.

LadyJay91 I would mind my business and hate on them everytime I got my Verizon Fios bill in the mail!! (chuckle)

PROTECTED TWEETER you already no.. I will come outside with my fuzzy slippers on and cut their line and then leave my bill on their door!!!

glamamara ask if you can run a line. hahahahahahaha

SGTMcClain asking him if I could set up my slingbox at his house… don’t want it to go to waste

md20737 In my younger days I would ask how I could get that!! Now I would just mind my biz.

PROTECTED TWEETER go over and cut that illegal connection asap and then send them my bill…

KamRenee Probably nothing. It’s not that serious to me.

ObiOrion it’s no business of yours so leave it alone.

TeeMonster I rat that puppy out. It’s no different than chumps who piggyback on someone else’s wifi.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

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