Reasonability

I work in a fairly interesting industry. You either know what I do and have a fairly polarized opinion of it, or you have no clue what we do. Let me explain. I work for an Energy from Waste company. We convert waste into energy, deal with the resulting pollutants from the combustion process, and manage the ash by-product in a responsible manner.

A lot of people seem to have it locked in their minds that we are evil, downright evil. I respect people's opinions. Living in a country where it's alright to have, and express vehemently, one's opinion is a great freedom. I won't get political.

I do feel though that when people sit down and honestly take a look at what we do, nine times out of ten, the question they have is "why aren't we doing more?" I feel pretty good about that.

Here's the daily slice of awesome though. We hosted a Representative from the California Legislature today. I'm not sure he knew much about Energy from Waste but he was interested and pleasant. I have no idea what he thinks going away from it, but he was polite, courteous, and interested in what we do. I doubt he'll become a crusader for us in the Legislature. He may decide we are polluting monsters hell-bent on destroying the air we breathe. I hope not, nothing could be further from the truth.

I value decency and politeness in people, even those that don't necessarily agree with every point I'd like to make. The Representative asked about my time at the plant, whether I liked the area, and even though he'll probably never see me again, treated me like a person rather than just one more face of a large corporation.

A decent world needs decent people. I met a decent person today, and that was awesome. I'll try and remember that for myself the next time I meet someone.