beer_good_foamy

After the terrorist attack in Stockholm this spring, they shut down all the public transport and quite a few roads in the city until they were sure they'd caught everyone involved. I was on my bike, and working in the suburbs, I commute in the opposite direction of everyone else. I'll never forget when I approached the city and was met by tens of thousands of people who'd normally take the train walking home for miles; in perfect order, without shoving or panicking, sharing the road. Strangers put strangers up on couches, strangers picked strangers' children up from schools and daycare, strangers fuelled up their boats and spent hours shuttling strangers back and forth to make sure everyone got home OK.

This is who we are as human beings, this is how we survived for millions of years as the slowest, tenderest morsel on the savannah. In times of crisis, when faced with monstrosity, our instinct is to band together, to help each other out, to see ourselves in others. Afterwards, some people will teach us to hate. But that takes a prolonged, continuous effort. Humanity always will out.

Happy new year.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

maia

Thank you for posting this - and thank you for posting everything you post.

Happy New Year, beer_good_foamy.

shadowkat

Seconding what "maia" said.

Saw some of the same things this year -- a man fainted on a train platform, a woman called the conductor's attention to it. The people on the train banded together to help this man.

During the Women's March -- everyone was kind to each other. There were over 400,000 marching in NYC midtown. We were packed in and freezing, but people were kind. They sang. They held hands. The police were polite.

Happy New Year to you both.