Adrian Koehler guides our ServeLA team at Mosaic. Recently, he became part of Take Part – “a new cause-related site designed to help you explore today’s issues and get involved. We believe that with the right information and tools for action, individuals can—and will—make a difference.”
In “Apathy on the Streets” Adrian writes: “Today I was scooting down the road on my way to run the everyday errands. I was unexpectedly torn in two. No, not from a wreck on my beautiful new scooter, but emotionally from what I was about to witness.
An L.A. front-loader sanitation truck was pulled up to (a homeless man named Mr. M’s) cart. The two men standing aside the cart went to work tearing off all of its appendages, pulling out its innards, and emptying its soul. I felt like I was watching a murder, paralyzed on the outside, screaming on the inside.
Questions were flooding my mind:
Did they even know what they were doing? Did they care about Mr. M? What would happen if he came passing by? Do they realize they are tearing apart and discarding the entire earthly possessions of one man? The hardest question that broke my paralysis was, “What am I going to do?”
I knew I would be forever retelling a story of cowardice and apathy if I kept on my way to the post office. Was it my right to step in? The question came back again….”