People are behaving badly. Be sure you're not one of them.

My dog Sydnee and I nearly got hit by a car this morning; not once, but twice.

When I woke up this morning and sat down at my desk to write an article, nothing earth shattering was coming to mind. I thumbed through the pages of my journal which is often a great source of inspiration, as it is full of personal experiences, private thoughts and issues I am contemplating; but a few pages in and nothing. So I decided to go walk my dog instead, knowing that a walk and fresh air always trigger creativity. I figured if I left the house, something or somebody would surely give me something to write about; boy was I right!

I am careful of the route we take on our walks because drivers prove over and over again how preoccupied and distracted they are. Most are on their phones because for some reason, they believe their email or text messages are more important than the lives of others around them. But even if not on their phones, I notice people are distracted in general. So I cross busy streets where there are crosswalks with designated signs and flashing lights for this very reason. Crosswalks alone should suffice for drivers to yield the right of way to pedestrians but they don’t, so I always use the intersections that have the button to push that initiates the flashing lights on the signs at both sides of the street.

This morning, I used one of these intersections per usual but as I started to step out onto the street, it was clear to me a woman approaching the intersection was going much too fast for someone who planned to stop. As she blazed by me, I waved my arms at her with a “what the hell”, which finally got her attention. She slowed down, mouthed “I’m sorry” and went about her way.

As I continued into the intersection, here comes another car speeding down the road. This one was a good distance away though, so there was no way he wasn’t going to take notice of the flashing lights and the woman with a dog crossing in front of him. Wrong! By now, I was in the middle of the intersection and it was clear he didn’t see me. I had no choice but to stop dead in my tracks and wave my arms. He screeched to a stop and as I shook my head at him in disbelief, he proceeded to roll down his window. I had figured he was going to apologize for nearly hitting me, but instead he yells at me, asking if I am new to the area? As if my years of residency in this town have anything to do with his nearly taking me out, I tell him I have lived here for nearly 20 years.

It is worth pointing out, I live in a small resort town in Idaho which is experiencing a massive influx of Californians and other “out of staters.” This migration is causing quite a stir. Increasing housing prices to astronomical levels, congesting streets with traffic a town with our infrastructure is not capable of handling, drastically increasing crime rates, dog shit left on sidewalks at unprecedented levels, and overall bringing large city issues to our small community. So his question wasn’t totally out of the blue, but his attempt to use it as a reason to justify his negligent behavior is absurd.

After I informed him I am most certainly not new to the area, but I am walking in a crosswalk where I hit the button to initiate the blinking lights to avoid people like him killing me, he looked around in surprise and rudely retorted, “well that light is new.” I assured him the light isn’t new and that he had an opportunity for this exchange to go a lot differently. Something like, rolling down his window and saying, “I am so sorry! I didn’t see you.” Had he chosen that path, I would have thanked him for apologizing and wished him a good day. Instead, he chose to behave very poorly, and I waved him off telling him, “have a good day, and try not to kill anybody.”

Being hit by cars seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life right now. My sister’s adult son was hit by a car a few weeks ago. Thankfully he walked away with minor injuries; a shoulder that requires PT but nothing too serious. The driver, who was on his cell phone, has now denied it was his fault and his insurance company is claiming my nephew “initiated the contact.” Laughable. I have yet to see a pedestrian who purposely runs into a car. Come to find out the driver has a CDL, so rather than accept responsibility for his actions, he chooses to lie in an effort to keep his commercial license.

Just last night at dinner, my husband was telling us about a 19 year old man who came to the hospital, who was hit by two cars on his scooter, but tragically wasn’t so fortune. He sustained injuries that were more than likely not survivable. I do not know the details of this accident, but I do know a young person lost his life.

I think we can all agree the world is in a very difficult place right now. We are all experiencing events we probably thought we would never experience. People were locked in their homes, forced to mask their faces and the faces of their children, and many lost their jobs or had their livelihood threatened. We are looking at the potential for a worldwide conflict due to the Russia-Ukraine situation, we are finding out we were lied to by officials at nearly every level of government and public health and then told we don’t have the right to speak freely or question anything we are being told.

All of this is true, but we aren’t making things any easier by the way we are behaving.

The problems around us seem overwhelming, I agree whole-heartedly. It is so easy to want to point fingers and blame the world around us for everything that is wrong. While this is an understandable response, it isn’t the solution.

The solution lies in each of us. We all have a personal responsibility to start behaving better. Accept responsibility for your actions. Treat others with kindness and remove yourself from the center of your universe.

While you may think you aren’t like either of the guys I described above because you do pay attention when driving, I assure you you aren’t so different. We all have areas of our lives where we aren’t paying attention. We neglect to see how the lives of others are just as important as our own. We blame others for things when the blame really is ours to own.

The world changes when we decide to accept our responsibility for changing it. Start behaving better and you’ll be surprised to see how others will follow.

Don’t perpetuate the madness.