JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Last year I suggested that it would be nice if Oprah did a daily thirty-minute broadcast of selfless people who were trying to make a difference in their communities, if she could find enough people who fit that description that is. In a world where it sometimes feels like everyone is out only for their own good, it isn’t always easy to remember that these people do exist. This weekend, as I was going home from the club, I just happened to see one of these very seldom recognized people. What made this person, someone I do not know and probably will never cross paths with, so special is not only was the act that he was performing selfless it was breaking down stereotypes. Anyone who has seen Gate 2 Street early Saturday or Sunday mornings is well aware of the surmountable trash that is deposited by the previous night’s party-goers. Yet early Saturday morning a young GI was out on the street wielding a garbage bag in his left hand and a large tong in the right. Dressed in camouflaged hip-hop ware, he went quietly along the street picking up what others so indiscreetly tossed about in every crook and cranny. If I had not been in a car driving down the other side of the road, I would have told him “Thank you for your efforts. Right now in this chaotic world we need more people like you.”