I was reading a local message board online. I do this to help me understand the goings on in my community. However sometimes this really is a bad thing. I end up feeling less social because i see such unkindness out in the word.  A lady was posting how she felt the christmas season had ended and the hate had returned. I think i agree with her as her posts comments made me feel the hate. She posted that her son was trying to help someone and accidentally bumped into someone else. The person he bumped into responded “Don’t Touch Me!” Okay, in his place, if a stranger bumped into me, my first response would have been the same. It’s hard to tell what kind of life that man has lived, so no way of knowing if there are legitimate reasons for his reaction or not.

Normally I would not have done more than shake my head at such a story. An outraged mother thinking her son had been rudely treated. I can see why she was so mean about the encounter. However, there was fifteen responses. All were horrible. People calling him names, and there was even one wishing harm on this poor unfortunate. I was floored. After all, in his place i would have done the same. Not because i was rude…Because with my anxieties and all that i have been through, I don’t handle strangers touching me well. I struggle to react normally when i am in a hugely filled public place…But there are days where it is unavoidable.

Is there no compassion in the world anymore? Could the woman not have merely been proud that she had taught her son to show kindness? Did it not occur to any of the fifteen people who responded that perhaps it was not rudeness, merely an automatic response born of any number of possible reasons? These questions arise and make me sorry for humanity. It feels as if we are losing the kindness and becoming something nasty and cruel. I don’t care if it makes me weird. I refuse to assume the worst of people. I just wish it was a more common trait.