The Misunderstanding

We discern the character of those we
meet through social interface, like the
neighbour so often seen with whom brief
pleasantries are exchanged, a man who
walks a large shambolic dog and who
cannot resist the occasional quip and if
you stop long enough waxes philosophical
on any given topic. How can a man so
devoted to a dog, pleasant to come across
willing to be neighbourly be anything but
proverbially 'nice', so you take the measure
of the man in that category. Years of this
exposure may seem tedious when you've
been trapped by social convention to
stand there and listen to his compassionate
views on the conflicts tearing the world
apart, even if you share those convictions
that it is a travesty and a tragedy that
humankind is so blighted. A little closer
to home as it were, prodigious spring rain
events have brought catastrophic flooding
to the region, leaving communities under
flood conditions, people forced to vacate
their homes when sandbagging fails. A 
new topic of conversation in passing, for
those whom fortune has blessed not to be
living in flood-prone areas. Your pleasant
neighbour now rails against the stupidity
of those who fail to heed where they build
so why should tax money support them in
their hour of need? Perhaps forgetting that
no one builds without a permit and since his
tax-funded municipal offices issued those
permits, his taxes involved the current peril.