“Look outside my window, there’s a woman being grabbed. They’ve dragged her to the bushes and now she’s bring stabbed. Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain. But Monopoly is so so much fun and I’d hate the blow the game. And it really doesn’t enter as anybody…” — Phil Ochs, 1968, “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends.”

A lot of sleepless nights have been visiting me of late because of the perilous times we live in. And the impetus for my fear and discomfort stems from local story I witnessed and reported more than four years ago, perhaps the most frightening story I ever wrote in my career.

This fear is of something nefarious happening while no one seems to notice, nobody seems to care. I fear silence and passive response to something wicked to enable it.

The story began with the City of Wayland election in November 2013. Lisa Banas, Jennifer Antel and Rick Mathis won a six-for-three contest for City Council. Not re-elected was Bruce Patrick, and Ron Kobish was turned away in his bid to regain the seat he lost in the previous runoff.

Kobish the year before had been appointed the Planning Commission and Mayor Tim Bala decided to named Patrick to an open seat to that body, starting in December 2013.

Patrick in a February 2014 meeting, moved to have Kobish elected chairman of the Planning Commission, though J.D. Gonzales had held that position for some time.

Now comes the frightening part — there wasn’t a peep in protest nor even a small voice asking the question why. The election of Kobish was done without comment or fanfare.

Adding insult to injury, the remaining members of the deer-in-the-headlights commission nominated and elected Gonzales to be vice chairman. It was a very public demotion.

I made a point of asking a majority of members privately if they had any issues or problems with Gonzales as chairman. There were none. The deer-in-the-headlights look reappeared when I asked the question why Gonzales was removed.

Further adding insult to injury was that Patrick resigned his Planning Commission seat the following month. And Kobish left the city the following year to take a new job on the east side of the state. Gonzales declined to be returned to chairman and John Frigmanski was elected chair. But then he resigned because of a residency issue.

Gonzales was forced to return as chairman because by-laws insisted the vice chair take the post when it becomes vacant. But for fewer than two years, Gonzales did not serve as chairman of the Planning Commission. And there wasn’t really a good reason why. The whole sordid process seemed manufactured.

This brings to mind the famous quote from Sir Edmund Burke that the best way for evil to triumph is for all men to do nothing. It also brings to mind that we have become a nation spectators who sit and watch unthinkingly, just like at a sporting or entertainment events. Chris Hedges called it “The Triumph of Spectacle and the Death of Literacy.”

Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, in his biography, “Testimony,” said Joseph Stalin’s henchmen would come to his apartment complex in the middle of the night and haul away suspected enemies of the state. It was done in silence, without protest. Like the Silence of the Lambs.

“Maybe we should raise our voices and ask somebody why. But demonstrations are a drag and besides I’m much too high.” — Phil Ochs again.

It’s more likely that too many people are not standing up to perceived negative actions because, “I don’t want no trouble, mister.”

I continue to see things go wrong for our so-called constitutional republic, but I don’t see any problem-solving actions in response by our complicit politicians. It’s almost as if documentarian Adam Curtis was spot on when he suggested they don’t have the will, nor the ability to solve problems, so all they do is move things around and distract the easily misled voters in order to keep their jobs.

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims… but accomplices.” — George Orwell

I remain frightened. I sincerely believe we collectively are going there in a handbasket. I worry that we will go quietly and passively and when it’s over, we won’t know what happened.