By Avi Benlolo in the Huffington Post
Bravo to Torontonian Max Sidorov for standing up to the bus bullies of Greece, New York and for not being a bystander, despite the distance and the ease of looking the other way. As has been widely reported in the past 24 hours, 68-year-old bus monitor Karen Klein suffered a malicious verbal attack by a group of grade seven students on a school bus, experiencing the sort of fear and shame that many of us have gone through at some point in our lives. Because of Sidorov, the response to her victimization has been overwhelmingly compassionate.
Although Sidorov was simply hoping to raise a few thousand dollars to send Klein on a special vacation following her ordeal, his campaign raised more than $500,000 (and counting) in just two days, exceeding all expectations and demonstrating that people are profoundly tired of the intolerance and disrespect so prevalent in society today. There seems to be an increasing level of contempt for older adults and much of that is due to the breakdown of values and lack of education about compassion, caring, empathy and simple respect for one another.
