Counterevidence to my theory that people basically stink -- Part 1 of a continuing series (hopefully)

In Garrison Keillor's dichotomy of the world into "Dark Lutherans" and "Light Lutherans," I am decidedly in the "Dark Lutheran" corner. My basic position is that people suck. We're selfish and nasty and mean, and when we occasionally do good things, that can usually be explained by the fact that we like to feel good about ourselves, not that we're actually good.

Nonetheless, I do like to find the rare example of ideas or people that make me the world better. Here are 4:

1) Rifle Falls State Park has 7 "walk-in campsites." They are all within a half-mile of the parking lot, so it's not a major backpacking expeditition. Nonetheless, it could be a challenge for a normal car-camper to lug her stuff from the car to a site. Lo and behold, somebody (presumably the Parks department, but maybe a Good Samaritan) has placed a garden cart at the trail entrance. What's amazing to me is that the cart seems to be well used -- which means it has been there for a while without being defaced or stolen. Hooray.

2) Salt Lake City has giant city blocks; I'm not sure, maybe it's a Mormon thing -- like the street naming conventions. At any rate, some crosswalks are in the middle of blocks, and there are no stoplights to provide cover for pedestrians. Someone had the good sense to place crossing-guard style flags at these crosswalks so that a pedestrian can at least make it obvious to drivers that she is there. Once again, the idea is great, but the fact that no one has stolen or defaced all the flags is also a minor miracle.

3) There's a restaurant in Salt Lake City called One World Everybody Eats http://www.oneworldeverybodyeats.com/ It's organic, local (when possible), and there are no set prices -- you pay what you think the meal is worth. Furthermore, they provide a daily staple -- when we visited it was rice and beans -- for which they expect no payment, so, truly, everybody can eat. If you want a full meal and have no scratch, an hour's worth of work gets you a plate. The food also happens to be quite tasty.

4) Workshop Houston http://www.workshophouston.org/ is a favorite nonprofit from our Lone Star days. We were first acquainted with their bike shop where anybody can come and use their array of specialty tools and get expert help on repair and maintenance -- for free. Better still, any kid or adult that doesn't have a bike can build their own (using donated components) after first repairing a donated bike for a nonprofit. The bike shop was cool enough but they've also expanded to include instruction in welding, fashion design, music production, and academics.

The thing that strikes me about all of these things is how replicable they could be. If we horded less and shared more, we would all be so much richer. But the instinct to own and control is strong; that's why these examples are all the exception rather than the rule. (Travis)