To the editor:

I saw my neighbor a few houses down shucking his driveway snow into the street. He and a couple of others also throw the snow furrows left by the city snowplow back into the street instead of between the street and their sidewalk. That snow will get packed and freeze again making it slick for his neighbors. A guy at my gym has a habit of standing in front of the large fan after his workout with his hands in the air to dry his bare underarms while patrons downwind are subject to his body odor.

These are two examples of what I consider the “me” mentality that seems to be edging into our culture. I see this trend in the ideology of the tea party. “I have health insurance so please don’t let the government have a program to help others get health care and, by the way, don’t mess with my government-run Medicare.”

Climate change deniers are not convinced that global warming is manmade in spite of the overwhelming science that tells us otherwise. It doesn’t fit into their corporate-driven ideology that may cause us to make a sacrifice today to help those who follow us. Those who oppose gay marriage do so because they say it will hurt the sanctity of marriage and they don’t want others to have the same rights they do.

Perhaps we didn’t heed to one of the basic teachings of kindergarten: “sharing.” The social IQ of some doesn’t seem to have gotten past that level.