Random Acts of Kindness

While checking the Adams Morgan Yahoo message board (usually overrun with nonsense and rude comments), I was pleased to find something pleasant, and much to odd/hilarious to keep to myself ...

Apparently, we are in the midst of "Random Acts of Kindness Week!" Who puts this on, you might ask ... well none other than the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation! Can you imagine getting a business card from someone in this organization?! Unreal!

To support this en masse , Adams Morgan is encouraging folks to utilize the 18th and Columbia kiosk (as they did for Festivus) to post ideas for the week. You can also log into the above website and send kindness e-cards. What random acts of kindness have you done this week??


So how this is funded and who runs it? ... this is the information on the "About Us" page on their website:

The Foundation is privately held and funded. We accept no donations, grants, or membership dues. We do not provide financial assistance to individuals or organizations. The Foundation has no religious or organizational affiliations; we encourage the practice of kindness in all sectors of society.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is the United States delegate to the World Kindness Movement, an organization that includes various nations. People in these countries promote kindness within their countries' borders and are creating a global network of kindness and compassion.

As people from different cultures and from all walks of life are joining to spread kindness, they are creating a powerful, synergistic action throughout the world. Please join us in bringing kindness and compassion to our local and global communities!

Looking past the absurdity that is this organization, I must say that this is a great idea. Go forth and commit random acts of kindness this week ... and stay tuned for World Kindness Day and World Kindness week in November!

Snipets from Adams Morgan

I occasionally peruse the Adams Morgan message board ... which, by the way, I am often shocked is still in use. I, for some reason or another, associate message boards with the forgotten times of AOL ISP monopolies; I find it surprising that there is so much activity on local message boards in a world where blogging is growing exponentially. There is an interesting article here about how the anonymity of message boards brings out the worst in people ... and I definitely have to agree with that in the case of the Adams Morgan Yahoo message board. Blogs and message boards are not mutually exclusive, but I just don't know anyone that contributes to message boards these days ... well, besides my mom.

Anyhoot, two items that I found particularly interesting:

1. A link to a WaPo Christmas Day opinion article from ANC 1C Chairman, Bryan Weaver, discussing the alarming nature of a recent shooting in Adams Morgan -- Callousness Against Hope in D.C. Commissioner Weaver discusses how disappointing it is that people have such a jaded response to crime and are unconcerned with the loss of human life. He makes a very good point in this article and I was shocked to see people asking for an apology from Weaver on the message boards -- gimme a break, AdMo residents.

2. There has been a crazy flurry of messages concerning the new interesection at 18th and Columbia Roads (where the festivus pole is). You can see the official changes to the intersection here, which are not totally completed, by the way. The problem with the intersection after the change is that people want to turn right to get across the bridge to Woodley Park ... but this is next to impossible because of pedestrian traffic. This causes a severe backup of traffic on Columbia Road, which I myself have experienced while riding the 42. The original intentions of the changes were to make the intersection safer to pedestrians ... so I'll take pedestrian safety over faster moving traffic anyday.