Empathy

 

Someone has put up these colorful-but-somewhat-difficult-to-read-while-driving signs on telephone poles around DC and its neighboring jurisdictions, and that basically begged for a post.

My first thought was somewhat ironically not empathetic at all.  I mean, sure, empathy seems like a good thing. It's certainly lacking in the current discourse.  But does whomever went to all the trouble to paint and post these signs (which by the way is illegal) think that this will change behavior?  Is a passerby really going to think, "oh wow yeah.....now that I see that sign, I realize that I should be more empathetic"? 

Apparently, that's what the anonymous poster was thinking per an interview with the local NBC news affiliate. Over the objections of transportation authorities across the region, this individual plans to continue posting signs until "empathy is widely discussed in the region." 

My second thought (well okay maybe it was my third, fourth, or fifth thought) was to question why I was getting all in a lather about this. So okay, maybe I don't buy the theory that these signs by themselves will change behavior.  But the message still makes sense, right?  We should all be more willing to see the world through other people's eyes, taking a moment to consider their point of view rather than just pouncing with all the reasons why we are right and they are wrong.  And if takes a sign on a telephone pole to remind me of that, so be it.

So empathy posting guy, you were right and I was wrong. Your sign made me stop and think, and perhaps has even induced me to be a little more empathetic. Mission (or at least first step of the mission) accomplished.