Taking the initiative to care
I am a great admirer of people who fix problems. They observe a situation, ask why it exists and seek help. If none is forthcoming, they fix the issue themselves.
Two recent examples come to mind.
Cal grad Mingwei Samuel recently noticed that there was no place for people to sit at bus stops in Berkeley, Calif. With very little money or experience, he built a wooden bench and installed it at the Martin Luther King Jr. Way stop.
Like Samuel, transit activist Darrell Owens was frustrated by the lack of seating available at bus stops. He had even raised the issue with members of the city council, but didn’t notice any progress.
“At the end of the day, if we want people to ride transit, they need to have a comfortable place to sit,” Owens told Berkeleyside. So, he hooked up with Samuel on the bench project.
The city of Berkeley responded by removing the homemade bench and replacing it with a far more expensive metal one. When questioned by the media about why, of…