By Amelia Hamilton

Welcome to Are We Doomed? The weekly column in which I will take the latest news and try to determine if it’s all downhill from here.

Good Samaritans

A minor car accident pushed a car into a canal on Long Island – with 78 year-old Joseph Abitabile and his 76 year-old wife Delores inside. Multiple people who witnessed the accident jumped in and brought them to safety. 

Verdict: When people are willing to take a risk to help each other without a second thought, I have to think the doom hasn’t gotten to us. 

ZoomWhat?

I’m guessing you already know what Jeffrey Toobin did (you can click that if you don’t, but this is your last chance to say in a blissful state of ignorance). One would think that was rock bottom, but no. 

This has to be rock bottom.

Rock bottom for Toobin, that is. 

Rock bottom for society is all of the people defending what Toobin did. 

Verdict: Everything about this, from the incident to the attempt to normalize it, spells impending doom. 

It’s ok not to be ok

Sometimes, you have to reach out for help. 

Edmund O’Leary, an unemployed divorced dad in England was feeling “rock bottom” and reached out on Twitter, hoping someone would see his tweet and help him feel less alone. 

He got more than 100,000 replies from people taking a moment to let Edmund know he’s heard and supported.

Verdict: It can be hard for people (let’s face it, especially men) to admit that things are hard and they need help. Look what happens when they do. We can’t possibly be doomed when people care about each other this much.

This is not excel-lent

I know we’re all busy (not really, there’s a pandemic, we’re all at home) and I give major credit to people who make sure they are prioritizing the relationships in their lives that matter, but no.

Verdict: When Bill & Ted said to be excellent to each other, they didn’t literally mean excel. This is the opposite. We’re doomed when we let technology this far into our lives. 

Never leave a friend hanging

I love her, and I love the priest for taking it in stride.

Verdict: This pure content is what we need to know we’re not doomed.

Obligatory dog entry

You know I have to have an entry about dogs, so here it is.

If that wasn’t enough, check out #MakeADogsDay on Twitter and Instagram. 

Verdict: What do I always say? You can probably say it with me by now – if we all lived our lives to try to deserve dogs, doom wouldn’t stand a chance.

IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS

People are making sexcel spreadsheets and whipping it out on conference calls, but we also have dogs, good samaritans, and sweet kids. I honestly think we might be ok for now, but the doom is never far away. Stay vigilant, readers.