Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
We're All In This Together
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2005 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
I try to emulate talented role models instead of finding their total mastery discouraging to the novice. But what am I to do when Jon Carroll writes about public transit the same day I do? From today's MC Masala, "How to avoid being a jerk on buses and BART":
Buses and BART remind me that we have a grand civilization. Mass transit is efficient and environmentally friendly and benefits even those who don't use it by reducing traffic. We don't segregate riders by gender or race. As a society, working together through our democracy, we create mass transit systems that benefit everyone. No one person could do it alone.But it only takes one jerk to ruin 20 people's pleasant rides.
Darn, I just noticed that "working together through our through our democratically chosen government" got changed to "working together through our democracy." Oh well. Enjoy the etiquette guide.
