It's no wonder.....

I guess I am starting to feel forty.  There are moments when my train of thought begins with inklings such as "I remember when I was a kid...." and "There was a time when..."  It seems that the older I get, the more the human race disappoints me.  The obvious things, of course, are all the things you see in the newspaper, but there are also smaller things, that I, as an individual have witnessed that remind me of what a self absorbed society we now live in. 

Last week, I was heading to a drive thru before work to get a coffee when behind me, I hear sirens.  Looking into my rearview mirrow, I immediately spot the ambulance and I move over to the shoulder of the road, despite the fact the the emergency vehicle was not even in my lane.  But growing up, emergency personnel on the road with sirens blaring caused a parting of the Red Sea!  Everyone got out of the way! 

Not in this lifetime.  Several cars changed lanes to get out of the way even if they didn't completely pull over.  But then there was that one gold car that the ambulance got behind who DID NOT MOVE.  Apparently Mr. Gold Car (Or Mrs. Gold Car as I was unable to see the driver)  was heading the same way as the ambulance and apparently did not see the point of allowing the emergency vehicle to make the turn first.  Because obviously, wherever the Gold Car was heading was way more important that someone possibly FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIFE while waiting for EMTS to arrive.

Then this morning, I drove JJ up to the bus stop.  Generally, I don't do this but it was raining and after the last bout of illness in my house I was in no rush for an encore.  So we get up there and the bus arrives and I make him wait until the bus has all the red lights flashing etc before letting him cross the road.  At the top of our hill, where the bus stops, there is a round about, or a rotary or a whatever you want to call them...one of those circles you have to drive around.  The bus stops prior to the circle.  JJ has thankfully hit the curb already when a woman comes up to the circle, never stops, drives the whole way around it to go back the road from whence she came.  Hello?  Bus lights?  Children?  I do believe the bus driver got her tag number and I hope she gets a hefty fine.  What if a child had been crossing? 

It's no wonder we have all the greater problems that we do; shootings in schools (the Amish school shooting  just devastates me.  Those people would never hurt anyone), people being all sue-happy, stealing, murder, etc.  We can't even manage our car on our way to work properly!  We can't obey simple laws that have been in effect forever!  People are endangering lives by simply driving across town! 

Are we really that self centered and self important that we are no longer able to care about people we don't know?  Are we truly unable to care about children just innocently getting on a bus or someone in need of medical attention, just because we have our own agenda and places we need to be?  Are we just going to keep spiraling out of control until we create our own demise?  If we don't start caring about each other more and ourselves less, the mess we have already made of our world is only going to get worse.  I'm already afraid of the world my grandchildren are going to grow up in as I see the world my kids live in now.

The world I grew up in got out of the way for ambulance drivers and we were considerate of each other on the roads,  and to this day, I practice what I learned growing up.  What example are we setting for the kids today?  So many of today's kids are growing up with rage, anger, insensitivity and greed as their role models.  A lot of these kids could grow up to be some pretty scary, not to mention violent adults.

Don't get me wrong.  There are still good parents out there that teach good values.  God bless you for doing that.  I just can't understand why some parents think values are "optional".