Perhaps it’s appropriate that a year after writing my first true rant, “Surrounded by Idiots”, I witnessed something yesterday afternoon that re-ignited my disdain for the growing ignorance and lack of concern for others that I see in our fellow humans. Not a huge incident, and probably won’t make any headlines, but took me from “finishing my ride and feeling good” to “you’ve got to be kidding me!!!” in about three seconds flat!

While waiting at a crosswalk for the light to change, an approaching siren turned me into a prairie dog, standing up straight, looking both directions for the flashing lights. Sure enough, from up-hill on the right comes an ambulance, and moving pretty fast. The light turns red and so the crosswalk light goes green, but the cars at the intersection are already pushing their way left and right to leave a hole for the ambulance. Pretty standard stuff up to this point, right?

A Japanese couple, caught mid-way across the street picks up the pace and speeds out of the way. A foreign couple, maybe in their early 50s BEGINS crossing the street as the ambulance approaches the hole created in the traffic. The ambulance comes to a halt mere feet from the crosswalk as this couple walks slowly across the street . . . and I mean they’re moving in what I can only describe as “Baywatch” slow motion! I could’ve crawled across the street and back in the time it took them to pass in front of this ambulance—with lights flashing and siren blasting!

Absolutely unbelievable!!

What is wrong with people? What has become of us that we can’t even hurry out of the way when someone else’s life may be at risk? How can some individuals become so self-centered, so narcissistic, so wrapped up in their own goings-on that they lose all sense of situational awareness whatsoever?

This was a crazy, extreme incident, perhaps, but I find it indicative of a much larger problem, I think, and we can see the signs of it everywhere. People in general seem to care less about other people (in general) with each passing day. Reading one last email, text, or status update on fill-in-the-blank social media site has become more important to us than the safety of those around us.

But let’s set safety aside and just talk common courtesy. I also watched a lady last night conduct a phone conversation while standing in line at the supermarket. No big deal, right, other than the fact that everyone there was subject to her inane babbling. Still, not a huge transgression. I was shocked, however, when she moved through the line, continuing the phone conversation as the clerk checked her out. REALLY?!? That mundane conversation—this was not a response to some on-going emergency, trust me, we all heard it—was worth more to her than the need to pay even a modicum of respect to the individual providing her a service. After all, those little people are really more like bugs anyway, right? Seriously?!?

Common courtesy and its close cousin, common sense, seem to be dying a rapid death in an age of self-indulgence and self-importance. In fact, “self” seems to be at the center of everything these days and it’s really starting to show in everything from education to politics to business to medical care. Selfishness and narcissism have become the guiding principals of our modern society, and frankly, it’s making me sick.

Is nobody out there still working for the common good? Does everyone have to be working an angle? Is there nobody who still believes in old-fashioned ideas like politeness, punctuality, corporate success, and, dare I say it, self-sacrifice? (Gasp!) These are the ideals that made our nation what it is today, and yet we seem to be running as fast as we can away from them, tearing out our national roots in the process.

Democracy is a funny, very fragile thing. It can really only work in a society where people are willing to put the good of their community ahead of themselves. When that precondition ceases to be true, democracy will fail, and history offers multiple examples to prove that point.

But this won’t change—this odious trend can’t be reversed—with words alone. This rant will ultimately fall into the trash bin of other online garbage such as Kardashian updates and which celebrity is coming out of rehab today, but actions . . . now actions have a way of creating impact. So, here’s what I suggest, for myself as well as for the few of you who took the time to read this far. Start off trying to accomplish something for someone else at least once a week. I’m not talking about a family member or a friend—though if you’re not at least assisting those folks already you’ve got a bigger problem than most—but somebody you don’t know, a stranger. Hold a door open. Help carry a package. Give away an umbrella. Doesn’t have to be something big.

Just once a week, is all I’m saying. If that becomes easy for you, make it twice a week, then three times. When you get to the point where every day you find yourself looking—actively seeking—for strangers in need, you’ll have reached a tipping point at which others can’t help but notice . . . and by definition you’ll have started to change the environment within which you live, work, shop, and commute.

At best, you’ll make others more aware, more willing to help as well, maybe even pulling them out of their own oblivious self-indulgence. They know better, we all do, actually, we’ve just forgotten those very important life lessons we learned in kindergarten. At worst, you won’t change anybody else’s behavior . . . but you can be sure you’ll never be the idiot holding up someone else’s trip to the emergency room.

Either way, that’s progress.

M. G. Haynes