It’s Like the Wild Wild West Out There

We’re a year into the pandemic and I really believed we would have figured out how to live, work, cohabitate and extend kindness to each other.

What I find though, for the most part, is the opposite. It’s like the Wild Wild West out there. I’m not talking about true crime — it’s stuff folks think they can get away with because who is going to step up and call them out? 

So few people wear masks. Cars drive the wrong way. No one picks up their dog’s poop. Masks are just dumped on the sidewalk. There’s litter everywhere. And during winter, when you’re legally required to shovel your sidewalks, very few people stepped up. 

We seem to have lost our social graces and our ability to live in a civil society. 

There will always be crime but why has the pandemic caused a spike in littering and illegal behavior? Are we so mad at the situation that we need an outlet so we don’t pick up the dog’s poop? Are we really this far gone? And do people really feel like they’ve ‘gamed the system’ by not picking up the poop?

I don’t have all the answers but I do know the difference between right and wrong and let’s be honest, so do all those people who are actively not doing the right thing. 

I’m not just accountable to me or to my family, my neighbors, or my city. I’m accountable to you and you’re accountable to me. 

We’re all accountable to each other. We should start acting like it. 

Photo by Ralph (Ravi) Kayden on Unsplash