Today’s the Day to Do Unto Others--Kindly

They want a world where you can depend on the kindness of strangers.

A world where instead of flashing the high beams at freeway slowpokes, you toss them a smile. A world where instead of chuckling as the elevator door shuts on some chump, you--perhaps even surprising yourself--tap the “Open Door” button.

What imaginary planet was this again? Our own Spaceship Earth, they say.

They are the Kindness Movement, a new and loose network of somewhat shy do-gooders who, by early accounts, are killing doubters with, well, you know. The nationwide group has spread the gospel to 38 states and even to New Zealand and Canada, where the first ever Random Acts of Kindness Day will be observed today in some small but considerate fashion.

“All you ever hear about is the bad stuff,” said Andrea Manes, 44, who accepted an Anaheim City Council proclamation reserving today for random kindness. “It’s a day to give up a cup of coffee to someone. Anything that helps.”

Like others across the country, Southern California advocates are not leaving kindness to chance this week. In Orange County, they planned to hand out teddy bears at the Anaheim police station, donate clothing to the needy and give beanbag chairs to Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Meanwhile in Santa Monica, children at Roosevelt Elementary School penned letters to children in earthquake-ravaged Kobe, Japan. In Long Beach and Los Angeles, Meals on Wheels officials have tucked Valentine’s Day cards into meal deliveries this week.

Such widespread recognition has legitimized the movement, which encourages such spontaneous acts as mowing a friend’s lawn, putting coins into someone else’s parking meter and buying ice cream cones for kids. The good deeds, ideally anonymous, elevate a person to a higher spiritual level and help make the world a kinder, gentler place, supporters say.

“I’m the pusher at my school,” jokes Becky Downes, a business teacher at Valley High School in Santa Ana and one of several kindness coordinators in Orange County. “The kids really love it and it’s such a good idea. It’s really needed with all the violence in the world.”

The Kindness Movement has been gaining momentum since the 1993 publication of “Random Acts of Kindness,” a collection of true stories. The book and two sequels extol the virtues of altruism.

But the movement owes its start to Berkeley writer Anne Herbert who in 1982 penned the phrase, “practice random kindness and acts of senseless beauty.” Eleven years later, kindness followers received another boost from Bakersfield teacher Chuck Wall, who was among the first to print bumper stickers urging, “Commit Random Acts of Senseless Kindness.”

However, not everybody is rushing to embrace the kindness movement. Supporters say they frequently collide with people who laugh off the campaign as simplistic and futile.

“They are sourpusses,” said Downes, who gave a homeless person $50 on the spur of the moment this week. “That’s their problem.”

Westminster City Councilwoman Charmayne Bohman, who is distributing “Kindness” bumper stickers, said, “I believe there is too much meanness in the world. Everybody seems to be mad or angry about something. If we can redirect that energy even for one day to something positive, maybe it will be catching.”