You Just Never Know

Sometimes, okay often, it feels that as individuals we don't have the power to make a difference. We try to do what is right, and that feels good, but is it really helping? Really changing a negative situation for the better?

On September 17th in New York City on a busy street with much traffic, a black Mercedes suddenly veered to the left. The problem was that there was a bicyclist directly to the left of the car. The bicyclist quickly tried to avoid being crushed by tapping on the car's window to let the driver know he was there. The driver rolled down his window not to see what was wrong, but to swear at the bicyclist and to tell him to stop touching the car.

There ensued a conversation between the driver and bicyclist, then the car pulled away. However the car had special plates indicating the car belonged to a New York State Senator. The bicyclist caught up with the car at the next stoplight and tapped on the window—more tentatively this time—and asked the driver his name. The driver replied he was Senator Jeff Klein.

Now it might have ended there except for one thing: the bicyclist is a well-known blogger and something of a local celebrity. Colin Beavan is known to many of us as "No Impact Man." He and his family have reshaped their lives to lessen their impact on our planet, and Colin writes about their year-long experiment in simple living and related issues. He is an articulate writer and a concerned citizen. And his blog is read by many people.

Colin, a board member of Transportation Alternatives, wrote a letter to the senator requesting a meeting to discuss how to make roads safer for bicyclists and the environment better for all New York City citizens. It was a polite letter, not an angry one. But to try to encourage the senator to meet with him, Colin asked his readers to please contact the senator by phone or email to express the wish that the meeting would be held.

That afternoon Colin received a phone call from the senator's office to set up the meeting and to ask if the phone calls and emails could be stopped. It seems many of us wrote and called, and the senator's staff was a bit overwhelmed.

Lesson One: Well the obvious one is that if you have vanity plates on your car, you need to drive more thoughtfully. Especially when you're a public servant, like a state senator. 

Lesson Two: Think twice before being rude to others, if for no other reason than you don't know what you could be getting yourself into. That innocuous-looking guy riding a bicycle and wearing a purple helmet might be someone important. And with influence of his own.

Lesson Two-and-a-half: Think twice before being rude to others because everyone is important!

Lesson Three: Think before you act. Period.

It's so easy to live in own little world, unaware of what is happening around us, unaware of the harm we are about to do. We get caught up in our perceived self-importance and forget the other person is just as important as we are.

Lesson Four: Caring to help another do what is right has the potential to make a difference. The opportunity to help presented itself, and many people accorded by responding. One person acting alone would probably not have gotten an appointment. Many people coming together to support that one person made a difference. 

Comments

[Judy]

Venerable, As I cannot stand and applause while typing this, please take the standing ovation for telling this story as a given.
So many times we hear "well, what difference can [I/one man/one woman] do about it?", forgetting that so many times it is the actions of just one ordinary person who started a movement of great positive change.
It doesn't really take a great man to make change, just a socially aware person with great integrity and conscience. Colin Beavan is obviously a shining example of this.
Thank you for sharing his story.

Amituofo