Have you ever noticed how more and more people in this society don’t care about the welfare of others? Take for instance a story in USA Today which ran Aug. 30. A 26-year-old woman who threatened suicide on a Seattle bridge was taunted by motorists to jump. They said, “jump b****!” Here is a woman who is mentally unstable and she is ultimately pushed over the edge by people who want her to jump so they can get to work on time!

My Friday night reminded me of how people just don’t care about others. I went to Springfield with two guys (I’ll call them John and Brian) for a night of dancing at a place called The Spot. There weren’t many people there, so we decided to check out a bar called Boone’s Saloon a few blocks away. We were walking across the street right in front of Boone’s when I noticed a truck coming down the road toward us. I told the guys to hurry across and after we reached the sidewalk, we were splattered with a whole bunch of something. I was in shock. I looked down and saw something pink and gooey on my show. I said, “What was that?” One of the guys said, “strawberry milkshake.” My whole back and pants were soaked in the sticky mess. John got splashed on his back too and he was ready to spit nails. Here we are getting ready to have some fun and a couple of rude people decide to ruin our spirits and our night.

We got cleaned up as best we could in the men’s bathroom and tried to forget about the incident. We decided to drive back to our hometown of Decatur and hit one of the bars there. I was the DD and I drove us home.

We were coming up a slight ramp with two concrete walls on both sides. I looked up to see a car coming down the ramp spinning out of control with smoke spewing from the back. I stopped the car and said, “Oh God!” The guys said, “It’s alright. Just go.” I stayed where I was and it was a good thing because the car turned real fast in front of us and sped away. The rear end of the car was smashed like the driver had been hitting everything in sight! Yet another example of people not caring about others.

I thought the night couldn’t get any worse than it had been … wrong! We made it to a bar and hung out for a while until it started closing at 2 a.m. Upon leaving, two guys started arguing with Brian saying, “We’ve seen you giving us dirty looks all night!” One guy ended up punching Brian in the jaw and an older guy broke it up and slammed the guy on the concrete and started choking him! While John was breaking up that fight, a bartender attacked Brian and Brian slammed him on the ground and started punching him. And then the two guys who’d started the whole thing got two more guys and they started after Brian. I hadn’t seen fists flying like that since high school. I just stood there shaking and thinking “Why are they even fighting?”

By the end of the night, I just wanted to go home where everything was safe. I can’t believe people act so uncaring toward others. After a night like that, I’ve realized that anything can happen to anyone at anytime, especially in a world full of idiots.