Fox News is reporting on a woman who has been asked to stop doing something nice.  A Minnesota woman has made a habit of meeting the school bus every afternoon with a basket of cookies.  She’s apparently been doing it for years with no reports of youngsters bursting into flames or the bus dissolving into a pit of cholesterol and elevated blood sugar. Can you imagine?  Someone doing something kind and fun in order to get to know the people in her neighborhood and bring a little happiness into the lives of others?

Unfortunately, like most other nice things in our world, all it takes is one jackass to spoil it for everyone.  She’s been asked by the school district to stop because someone complained.

She’s not letting it get her down.  She’s going to try to continue meeting people in her area, and has a sunny outlook on life and people:

“People are good,” Tabat said. “I’ve yet to find someone I can’t find commonality with. We’re all crawling around on the planet dealing with circumstances in our life, and most of us just want to raise a nice family and be successful in however you define success and for most people it’s just surviving.”

While I admire her spirit, and I wish her success, I have to disagree with her when it comes to people.  Individually, people tend to be decent.  Heck, some of them are downright saintly.  But taken in groups or as an aggregate, people tend to be less than intelligent, panicky, and mean.

Anonymity in a crowd, or in a process like complaining to the schools, brings out the worst in them.  If you need an example, go ask Tam about her trevails dealing with trolls.  The fact that it’s rather difficult for someone outside of Fort Meade to connect Imadoofus694ever to John Q. Dickhead of suburban Minneapolis invites the little guy with the pitchfork on his left shoulder to sound off.

A lady walking into SUPERBIGBOX retailer on November 15 may smile, hold the door for the little old man who has his arms full, and may even buy a bucket of popcorn from the cute Cub Scout out front.  The day after Thanksgiving, as part of the mob of unbridled avarice that has gathered at that same door, she is quite willing to trample orphans and kittens in order to get a great deal on the latest cell phone and the doll that not only eats, but throws up on you if you hold it just right.

Individuals are good and decent.  People aren’t worth a bucket of warm spit.

So, I salute Mrs. Tabat and her efforts to make her neighborhood a better place, as well has her perspective on humanity.  For me, I’ll just continue to watch the world through more suspicious filters.