I am writing this article after reading countless other articles focusing on Brock Turner and the Orlando shooting. For those of you who do not know, Turner is a student and former swimmer of Stanford University in California. He has recently stepped into the spotlight after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. As for the shooting, a gunman opened fired in a popular club called Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, killing 52 people. These are not the first (or last) tragedies that will be drawn to our attention.
The news is full of stories like this one everyday. Rapes, murders, robberies, assaults and many other hideous events take place all over our country, all over the world. I just have one question directed at the entire human population, and it is this: What happened to being a human being? What I mean by this is what happened to being kind? To being generous? Empathetic? Honest? Things in today's society that we praise. Well I think that's bullshit.
I remember when this issue first started to bother me. I was a freshman in high school and a fellow classmate dropped a binder and papers went everywhere. My initial reaction was to bend down and help them pick up there stuff. It was frustrating to see countless people simple step over and even ON this person's school work. Said classmate thanked me and I continued on my way. I was then stopped by a teacher who told me what an extraordinarily kind thing I had done. Kind yes, buy extraordinary? Since when has doing the RIGHT THING so rare?
Since I've been in college, I've found that kindness makes people uncomfortable. A smile is returned by a grumpy or confused look, sometimes accompanied by a snotty remark. I didn't know a smile was so hurtful? Since when did caring for others, and showing them love and kindness, mean we want something more? Kindness has become so rare that it is often mistaken for flirting. We are living in a world where it is unsafe to have a little too much to drink and walk home alone. Where talking to a stranger can lead to our own deaths. Where simply being ourselves can end up in tragedy, and that hurts more than anything. So please, let us change this NOW. We are not born cruel or thoughtless. We were shaped to fit into a dysfunctional "selfie" society.
So please, Let the "extraordinary" acts of kindness become acts of kindness again. Please smile at the stranger who smiles at you when walking down the street. Help the professor who just dropped 100 math quizzes on the floor. Skip that class when you have a friend crying on the other side on the phone. Be smart. Be thoughtful. Be kind, and above all - Be Human.
