Mild necro of this thread for this worthy story of people being awesome and doing the right thing: http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled
I heard about this yesterday and I'm glad she stuck up for herself. No one should be made to feel ashamed for how they look.
^Her response was remarkable, but perhaps even more remarkable was the apology (or maybe that's just the morals of being raised in a predominantly Christian society speaking -- prodigal son and that -- but nevertheless, it was pretty cool).
Yeah, that was great! Not too often you see someone quickly fess up to their own bad behavior and try to make amends. It could have been a really nasty situation, but she led by example and it worked.
Okay so this is obviously a totally minor thing, but I'm at the airport right now and had a bad situation turn into a good one. When I originally booked my trip, I did it online but never got a confirmation. I called up American Airlines and was told that it didn't go through so I would have to rebook. It also hadn't appeared on the credit card, so I went ahead and rebooked about a week later. Today I go to check in and I'm told that I have two seats booked on the flight! Not good. I checked in under one, then called AA when I was past security. The agent quickly understood the situation, apologized, and cancelled my other reservation and refunded the full price. I didn't have to ask or fight or anything, which was pretty nice. So what could have been a huge hassle turned out to be fixed rather easily. Thanks American Airlines!
I routinely buy the coffee for any police officer that occasionaly ends up behind me in the drive through at D/D.
Christian Bale taking lots of time out of his busy schedule to visit the wounded survivors of the Aurora, CO theater massacre filled my heart with a lot of warmth and happiness. He didn't have to, and heaven knows few people would have begrudged him the right to not fly into Colorado with his day-to-day schedule as a busy A-list actor with a lot of responsibilities, but the fact that he was sweet, kind and compassionate enough to take so much time out of his week to arrange the trip, fly in and spend hours with the shooting victims was something I applauded then and applaud now. Most heroes don't wear costumes with capes and utility belts.
I'm glad this thread is resurrected. A few months ago I bought my teenaged son a new mobile phone. About a week later he'd gone on one of his usual long bike rides, and had managed to lose his phone in Exmouth town centre. As my son hadn't put a password on the phone anyone could use it, which turned out to be a good thing as the young man who found my son's phone was able to access my son's Facebook account to say that the phone had been found. My son arranged to take the train back to Exmouth the next day and meet the good samaritan so he could get his phone back. I try to be a positive person and have faith in humanity, but the kindness of this stranger still struck a chord.
The Rockies (baseball team) did the same thing when they arrived back in CO after the road trip they'd just been on. It was 3 AM when they did that. Linky
Don't know if this story was already posted, but - Last Christmas season, in Cairo, Eygpt, Islamic fundamentalest terrorists attacked a christian church, killing a number of people that were inside worshipping. The next week was Christmas Day, so the christians went back to church as a group, hopefully for protection (Egypt was still in upheaval, and they didnt feel they could rely on the authorities for help). When they arrived at their church, they found a large group of Muslims had gathered. The local Imam had called on all members of his mosque to come out with their families. He told the christians that while they were inside worshipping, his people and their families would surround the church. He said "if the terrorists want to get to you, they will have to go through us." They stood around the church untill the services ended, then escorted the christians home. See? Even an athiest can admit sometimes the theists do the right thing.
^Following that, a beautiful picture of Egyptian Christian protestors protecting Muslim protestors as they pray:
The recent Libyan protestors demonstrating against intolerance, violence and terrorism and for closer friendship with the West were so beautiful and encouraging to see, even if certain posters on the board ridiculed them as fake and charlatans. Seeing men, women and children holding signs saying "This is not what Libya and Islam are about," "I was not offended" and "We love America" were so inspiring. Those people are the hope of their nation and I have more confidence in Libya than I do some other countries in that region.
Hurricane Irene last year badly flooded the Schoharie Valley, the place I left my heart 25 years ago when I moved to the big city. Valley farms were under 12 feet of water, the entire season's crop lost. Schoharie High students did a science project on potential long-term damage to the county's main source of jobs, and studied soil contamination by flood water. The result was hopeful--due to heavy rains in the week before Irene hit, the soil was already saturated and contaminated flood water didn't soak in. The students made my heart proud. But then they applied for a Samsung Solve for Tomorrow grant. Samsung chooses 12 finalists out of all the applicants. Four winners are chosen by a team of experts and the online community votes for a community favorite. The prize is $100K plus in technology for the school. Schoharie High School was the overwhelming community favorite. And what that tech will mean to a school with less than 200 kids (grades 7-12) in a poor county still digging out... well, it's just incredible. Thank you, America. ETA: link to vid https://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/video/index.jsp