Recently it seems as though the mistreatment of passengers on various airlines has become rampant. You may or may not have seen the video of the doctor being physically dragged off of a United Airlines flight and the more recent video of an entire family being kicked off a Delta flight.

While awful and disturbing, unfortunately, I don’t think we are seeing anything new. While these occurrences are not the norm, I believe they are coming to light now due to cell phone video and an increased awareness that instances like this do, in fact, occur.

You’d be hard pressed to find a human being that doesn’t find this mistreatment disturbing. While there are those who argue the airline employees were only following policy and while this may even be entirely true, there is still something so unsettling about what we see in those videos.

Here’s the thing: the way we treat other human beings matters. Period. Policy doesn’t matter, who was right doesn’t matter, that someone is “just following the rules” doesn’t matter. People matter. Human beings matter.

While we may not be able to do anything about airline policy or employee misbehavior, we absolutely CAN do something about the way we treat other human beings. We can treat them with kindness, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE IN THE WRONG. We can treat them with decency and we can strive to HELP others, regardless of policy or who is in the wrong.

This doesn’t mean that you have to violate company policy but it does mean that you should be kind. That you should strive to help in any way you can. That you should endeavor to be understanding and compassionate.

The entire world would change if we all just changed this one quality in ourselves. The entire future of the human race would change if we raised our kids to have these qualities.

Be kind. Be compassionate. Be understanding. Endeavor to help your neighbor, whether they are your actual neighbor or simply the neighbor in the seat next to you on an airplane.