(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Good People [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-05 View of Lake Wenatchee, Washington. It occurred to me a while ago that we tend to judge our species on the headlines. “War,” Murder,” “Rape,” “Theft’” Etc. Yet in truth these incidents are relatively rare considering the millions of interactions we have daily. One December day I went to the mall in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to buy presents. I checked the wad of bills I had in my pocket- $75- and then apparently missed my pocket when I thought I had returned the money. I walked on, finally reaching into my pocket to get ready to buy a selection. The money was not there! I was frantic. I had two little girls who would be devastated if there was nothing under the tree. I was making due with a salary as a postdoc of a bit over $20,000 a year and money was tight. How could I have been so negligent! I was in panic as I retraced my steps to the last spot I had taken the money out to count it. Of course the money was gone! However, at that moment someone, an employee I think, at the bar that was across from where I dropped the money, gestured to me to come in. He said that someone had something for me. I was directed to a middle-aged gentleman who was sitting at the bar, nursing a drink. “Are you missing some money” he said. Yes, I said, $75, I was going to use to buy presents. “Well,”said he, “I saw you drop the money and picked it up on the chance you would come back!” I did not know what to say. I offered him a reward, but he turned it down, saying “This is my present to you!” These actions of kindness play out all the time but you almost never see the headlines “Man returns money” Occasionally, if the good deed is spectacular enough (somebody returns a thousand dollars) it gets a headline, but these kinds of stories are rare compared to “man kills wife” or “banker absconds with $100,000.” If it bleeds it leads. Yet these little acts of kindness that serve as the glue that keeps society functioning play out all the time and I have been the recipient of a number, while trying to do my own when I can Item: My wife and I were grabbing a bite at an airport while waiting for our plane. A couple of men sat down across from us and ordered their food. We finished ours and I asked for the check. The waitress said “it’s already been paid.” By who,” I said. “By that man” she said, pointing to one of the men who had sat down across from us. I went over to thank him and to ask why and he said “You looked like a nice couple and I just felt like treating you.” Item: I had made an appointment to get my wife her COVID-19 shot while she was still living with me at our apartment near Seattle. I had to get her into the car, a job that eventually became impossible for me alone. In the struggle to get her into the car, I pushed her wheelchair to the side and then forgot it! I only discovered my error when I reached the drug store. I wanted to protect her and here I had absently minded forgotten to put her wheelchair in the back. I asked at the drug store if they had any we could borrow, but no dice. I needed to move her only a short distance, but had no way to do it. I then thought that I could buy a wheelchair at the drugstore and quickly did so, but realized that I had no tools with which to put it together!!. At that moment a man crossing the parking lot stopped and asked if I needed help. I explained the problem and he indicated that he had a toolbox with all the tools needed and in a few minutes he was putting the wheel chair together! I asked what I could do in return but he indicated that he was glad to be there when we needed him and went on his way. i got my wife in and she got her shot. Item: My wife and I were moving to Florida, using a 19-ft rental truck and I stupidly drove into a cul de sac. I could not backup because I was towing my car. The manager of the motel came out and assisted me in getting the car unhitched so I could back the truck up. While it was true we were staying at the motel, the task was difficult even for two people. Item: I left my walet at a store in Jucumba, California. I had my address in it, but no money or credit cards. Still, the owners of the shop mailed it back to me when they did not have to do so. Item: I left my wallet with several credit cards and some money at the checkout stand at a grocery store. It was immediately returned to me by the staff. Item: My parents drove to odd places on Sundays. My father took us on a trip to Cibola, a tiny town on the Colorado River between Yuma and Blythe, California. We broke down in the desert on the return trip. Finally someone came by and fixed the car enough so we could drive back to Yuma, where we arrived early in the morning. They could have breezed on by us and not gotten involved. Item: Two of the five gears on my university owned vehicle went out in Lea County, New Mexico, and I could not use the all important first gear. I hiked to a nearby ranch house and the woman who answered the door said “the rancher will be back at noon and can get you in contact with a local mechanic. When the rancher came home, he called the mechanic and while we waited he invited me to have lunch with him. Everyday we open doors for people or they open doors for us, we give a driver space to enter traffic or they give us space, we pick up something somebody has dropped and return it too them or they return something to us, we say hello, start conversations with strangers, sympathize with other people we don’t know over some problem they have, direct people to a location they want to find and on and on. It must happen many millions of times every day. The people who get attention are too often the bad actors. Another, even larger, example of human goodness is in the huge numbers of people who have spent a large amount of their time working to help others, conserve natural habitats, prevent wars, and more. Here is to the activists who want to make life better for future generations. While I don’t expect the news services to change much- they have to deal with the real world problem of how they can keep their business’ afloat and people buy papers or listen to news if it is bad or spectacular. We should, however, keep in mind that most interactions between people (I would say 99.9%) are peaceful or even friendly and helpful. Perhaps, we should be a little encouraged by the fact that most of our daily interactions are this way and that maybe most of our fellow passengers on this planet are not totally untrustworthy! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/5/2160801/-Good-People Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/