People in Need

This isn’t specifically about Hurricane Katrina, rather it’s about people in general, but it can certainly apply to the people affected by the hurricane. I’m not just talking about donations because while those people whose lives have been torn apart by the hurricane can certainly be helped by those and are definitely in need. I am also not specifically talking about beggars, panhandlers, or people on welfare that may or may not truly be in need.

I’m talking about normal people who find themselves, for whatever reason, in a situation that they could use some help. Car broken down on the side of the road, or find that they left their lights on and their car battery is dead, or they locked their keys in the car for examples. Minor things that could happen to anyone and, I dare say, eventually happen to everyone.

Now I would like to think that people have enough respect for one another to lend a helping hand to someone in need when they’re able to. I would like to think that people would provide that help to another person regardless of who the person in need was. I would like to think all that … but too often I see that just isn’t the case.

Certainly I understand that people aren’t always able to help, but I’ve personally encountered people that aren’t unable … they are unwilling to help … or were unwilling to help me at least. And today, as I’m reading Neal’s Nuze (http://boortz.com) I see “Yesterday I told you of one man who wrote that he was driving down an expressway and saw a car broken down on the side. There was a woman holding a small child standing outside the car. He pulled over to help, but when he saw the "W" sticker on the woman's car he drove off. He just couldn't bring himself to help anyone who supported George Bush.”

Now I believe he was referring to something that he had read off of http://www.democraticunderground.com/ and frankly, well, I can’t say I’ve exactly had a stellar opinion of the posters at that particular site, so I can’t say that I’m that surprised.

A lot of people wouldn’t have a problem with this stance … and maybe I’m just weird … but to me, there’s no difference between a person that would do this and a person that would drive off because he suddenly noticed that the woman was black, or saw a Star of David on her back window. This is a person who is willing to discriminate against another human being because she’s different than him. He believes that he is better than her because of her political choice … he believes that she doesn’t deserve his help. I bet he felt that he ‘taught her a lesson’ too … if he had a Kerry bumper sticker the ‘lesson’ that he probably taught her was that Kerry supporters were jerks …. Though there’s a good shot she already knew that….

I hope that he has a wife and young child, and that they break down on the side of the road, and the person that stops and helps them has a big “W” on their front bumper … proudly displayed. Of course they might be too proud to take assistance from a lowly ‘Bush supporter’ ….

People really need to realize that we’re all humans and we’re all different we should welcome that difference because life would be really boring if we were all the same.

Well … I’ve rambled enough for the day … hopefully there was a point in all that somewhere…..