By Larry Simoneaux
A few stories to help make a point.
Several months ago, I stopped at a filling station for gas and a gallon of milk.
After purchasing the milk and, while walking back to my truck, I saw an older couple standing next to their vehicle, which had a flat tire. That was the bad part. The good part was that they were also watching a young man change the tire for them.
When he finished, I heard him tell the couple that there was a nail in the tread of their tire and that they should take it to a tire store, have the nail removed, and the tire fixed. The couple thanked him profusely and tried to pay him for his help. His answer was: “Naw. It wouldn’t be right.” And, with that, he departed.
Repeat similar scenes around the country. They happen. On a daily basis.
The second story was front page news in this paper on Oct. 1. It concerned a gentleman whose truck had left the road in a very remote area, rolled down a hillside, and was, literally, prevented from going over a cliff by a small stump.
That was the good news. The bad news was that he’d been grievously injured in the crash and the likelihood of his being rescued was somewhere between slim and none .. and, as the saying goes, Slim was leaving town.
Still, in a series of coincidences that many of us would refer to as miraculous, two other individuals were in the area and they’d heard the horn of the wrecked vehicle blaring continuously and decided to see what was going on.
One of the individuals — who happened to be a former EMT — saw the truck, went down the slope, rendered all of the help he could and, together with his companion, moved the injured man to the road and kept him alive until medical aid arrived.
Again, good people doing good things simply because it was what needed to be done.
The last story concerns the recent massacre in Las Vegas. There, you’ve probably either heard or read about the people — first responders, doctors in the audience, former service members, and just ordinary individuals — who waded into the hell that was going on to help those who’d been hurt. Stopping the bleeding. Plugging wounds. Moving the injured to safety. Shielding others with their own bodies.
And here beginneth my point.
Looking around these days, one might come to the conclusion that everyone in this country is angry, has chosen a side, and is about to go to the barricades snarling and snapping at “the other side.” All of which is simply not true.
Most of us simply want our “leaders” to work together on the problems we face, keep the country safe and solvent, and try to behave in ways that won’t make the front page of a tabloid. That it’s otherwise makes me wonder who’s cultivating the anger, instead of bringing us together, and why.
Minor aside: Were one inclined to find out the why of the above, the best method to use would likely be to “follow the money.”
That said, and as noted in the three stories above, I’m of the opinion that there’s a vast pool of good both in and around all of us, but you’d almost never know it based on our 24/7 news, commentary and social-media-obsessed world.
There, we’re constantly treated to stories blaring the “outrage” of the day and, then, depending on the commentary of choice, telling us of the absolute evil being perpetrated by the “other side.”
I guess I’m just tired of it all and, so, barring disasters, I tend to listen to the “news” very infrequently and, when I do, I do so with more than a hint of skepticism.
As for boiling with anger at one side or the other, I won’t do that simply because I keep seeing what happens when either everyday problems or major catastrophes occur. Ordinary people in a flood repeatedly setting out in their boats to rescue others. Ordinary people in earthquakes and mudslides digging others out of the debris by hand if necessary. In events like Las Vegas, ordinary people in the face of mortal danger helping others while risking their own lives to do so.
And this is what tells me that most of us don’t hate the rest of us.
In short, what isn’t being repeated often enough is the fact that we’re better than “our betters” want us to believe.
And that little factoid, I think, is something that should concern us all.
Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to: larrysim@comcast.net.
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