Where has the goodness of mankind gone?
When I was on the Mall Ride heading to Union Station a week ago, a woman in a wheelchair got on the bus. When she had to get off, the bus driver asked a man who was standing on the wheelchair ramp to please move out of the way. He didn't hear what the bus driver said, and I don't think he knew that he was in the way. The woman he was with pulled him aside and loudly said, "Get out of the way. The cripple has to get off. There's always cripples in this place." As she turned away from me, I gave her a dirty look. I look back on that moment and wish that I would have said something to that woman. She could have told her friend, "Hey move, someone has to get off the bus," or something like that. But referring to someone in a wheelchair as a cripple, as if it's a contagious disease, sickens me.
My roommate works at a restaurant, and sometimes she brings extra food home. I remember one day, she came home with 8 loafs of bread, and told me, "Yah, I had some other bread, but I gave some to the homeless on my way home."
Another time she told me that a homeless man asked her for change. She didn't have any because all she had was her debit card. So what did she do? She took this man to Illegal Pete's and bought him a burrito. And those burritos aren't cheap. The fact that she took this man into her company for a short time and fed him a hearty meal amazes me. I think about this whenever someone on the street approaches me for change. Usually I'm too busy trying to get to wherever I'm headed that I politely tell the person, "No," with a smile, and I keep walking.
Perhaps I am a hypocrite. Perhaps I need to start doing something to help mankind besides picking up some litter I may find and throw it away, or emptying the lint screen after I dry my clothes just in case the next person forgets. Even though those are two small things, I believe that I am helping mankind. Granted I am not the perfect individual, but I think every little thing counts.
Where has the goodness of mankind gone?