I recently booked on the AutoTrain (IYKYK) to make a round trip for personal reasons, and this form of transportation was the most cost-effective convenient means to accomplish my ends.
I arrived early enough, and had no issues checking in my vehicle and getting my boarding pass.
After a relatively brief (1-1/2 hour wait) we boarded the train.
I was in coach this leg of the trip, and I was seated at the opposite end of the second level from the coach dining car.
The train began the process of coupling together and then.....nothing!
Apparently engine troubles were causing a delay. After about 30 minutes trying to repair the current engine, they called for a replacement engine.
Meanwhile, the coach car lounge was providing cups and ice so people could chill their own drinks or fill them with water from faucets.
However, no engine means no power. Power = air conditioning, the meal systems, electrical outlets, wi-fi, even the toilets were electronic.
As 30 more minutes passed, one of the crew members manning the coach car broke out a few cases of the snack packs and small bottled waters - for free.
By that point in time, passengers had been an hour in the (not oppressive for Florida) stuffy warmth, and had begun to get agitated.
Then the first voyagers back from the lounge car loudly announced "free snack boxes and water" and the feeding frenzy began (pun intended).
The occasional individuals passing through became a steady stream, and the reasonable division of the bounty morphed into hoarding selfishness.
People began returning, with each person carrying 2-3 snack boxes and several bottles of water.
And then, predictably, the free items ran out with over half the intended recipients not benefiting, while a small group took more than they needed.
This microcosm of an inconvenience is something we have seen repeatedly in the preparation time leading up to large-scale predictable events (COVID-19 lock downs, blizzards, hurricanes) and during the aftermath of unexpected events (floods, earthquakes, tornadoes).
Store shelves are wiped out of milk, bread, eggs (there must be a lot of French Toast aficionados out there), toilet paper, bottled water.
Gas cans and generators fly off the shelves, along with with batteries in sizes not often used anymore, only to have the remorseful buyers try to return them, obviously used, when they can't resell them on FB Marketplace or Craigslist.
When did we, as a society, become so focused on the self to the point that we no longer recognize that we are part of a community?
More to the point, how do we fix this problem?
How do we redirect ourselves and others to function not just as one, but as many into one whole?
How do we come back together as a society interested in the good of all as well as ourselves?
(Serious answers only, please!)
