With so many negative and sensational headlines and divisions in today’s society, we might be forgetting the simple signs of cooperation among the citizenry. I am not talking about Amber Alerts (although isn’t that a big sign of Americans helping each other?) and special calls to action for dramatic events of nature. I am talking about the everyday cooperation of people making a living and looking out for our neighbors.

Today’s story in the Los Angeles Times (August 14, 2013), tells the story of an area of Los Angeles that

has been chosen by the Los Angeles Police Department for traffic calming. Traffic calming is essentially rules deployed all across the city in an attempt to reduce cut-through traffic in residential areas. Among other things, the city has restricted turns, installed traffic islands and added stop signs and speed bumps. Sounds sensible on the top side. The bottom …