Mean Girls, You've Got To Be Kind!

I was at Walmart one day and there was a guy sitting on a bench at the front near the registers. He was very obviously profoundly developmentally disabled, completely in his own world, and just having an absolute blast. I can't remember exactly what he was doing, but he was making a fair bit of noise, maybe listening to music because he was singing and chair dancing right there. 

Then these three teenage girls walked by. They were about 16, really pretty, fashionably dressed, the total cheerleader popular mean girl types. They noticed him and immediately started laughing and pointing, mimicking him and just being incredibly mean about it. 

I was standing right near them, and seeing that smug cruelty just made my blood boil. I spoke up and yelled right at them: "You should be ashamed of yourselves. Some day you'll look back and actually feel the shame you should feel now, and you get to live with that guilt. I wonder what your parents would say about your being such rotten little cunts to a harmless human being. Get the fuck away from him and me."

Their mouths dropped open, completely stunned, and they just walked away with their tails between their legs. 

But then I looked back at the man. He had seen exactly what they were doing, and his whole demeanor changed from that pure joy into one of deep sadness. My heart just fucking broke for him. He’d been so damn happy moments before, and now he went from miserable to completely blank, just putting up a wall to protect himself. 

I went over to him and told him: "There are people who love you in this world. Ignore the mean people."

I'm not sure he fully understood the words, but he went from being targeted and mocked to having someone step in and speak to him with gentle, human respect. 

Eveybody should take Vonnegut's advice to babies to heart.

"God Damn it, Babies, you've got to be kind."