Say you're walking out of a fast-food place on a hot day and an elderly man collapses nearby. His daughters are pleading with people around them to help their father - would you know what to do? Would you stop to help or would you go on your way and not give it another thought?
Or you're driving home from work and you see a two-year old boy standing alone on a sidewalk with his scooter - no adult around. Would that seem odd? Would you stop to make sure he's ok?
More after the flip...
I know these aren't politically oriented questions but the above situations came up for us recently. In the first case, my husband did stop and he performed CPR on the gentleman. No idea if the man survived but at least he tried. He couldn't not help - he was a trained lifeguard before moving to the states and has a background in first aid and CPR. He was shocked at how many people just stood there - or worse yet - kept going, ignoring the pleas of the man's daughters.
I came across the second situation on my way home last night. At first I drove by the little boy thinking his mother or father were on the porch of a nearby house. I watched him in my rearview mirror for a block and when it became clear that no one was with the little boy, I turned around and went back. He was only two. He kept trying to ride his scooter and would veer over onto the street and could easily have been run down by a car. I asked him where he lived and he pointed to the end of the block, and when we turned the corner and were halfway down the next block, a woman came out of a house with a phone to her ear. She'd left her child in the backyard and he'd decided to go for a walk.
I was sickened to think of what might have happened to her son. She's lucky the mother of two pre-schoolers came along. Her son could easily have been scooped up and put into a car - never to be heard from or seen again. Or hit by a car. If she hadn't come out of her house and I wasn't able to find out where the little boy lived, my only other option would have been to call the police - it's not like I could have just abandoned him / walked away at that point. She could have been dealing with them instead of me last night.
I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems our society has gotten to the point where so many people would have kept walking - or wouldn't stop to help that child. Ten or twelve cars must have gone by before I stopped last night - one man even walked right by him. It was clear he was alone and to them it wasn't worth the bother. Let someone else deal with it - they have to get home for dinner. Or they have a meeting to get to.
It's always something right?
I would hope that if I were that scatter-brained and my 3 year old wandered out onto the street and around the corner, someone would stop him and help him find his way home again.
At any rate, I thought I'd throw this out there and see what you all think. It's kind of seen as corny now but Hillary was right when she said, "it takes a village". It really does, and it makes me sad to think that notion is belittled now. Are we really that independent that we don't need others at some point in our life? Can we do it all ourselves without others watching our back the way I did that other mom's last night?
I don't think so.
For instance - how many of us give blood on a regular basis? I'm terrified of needles but I started giving blood at our office blood drive every other month when I co-worker I didn't know lost her husband to a long illness. He's used a lot of a certain kind of blood product that wasn't covered by their insurance, and they were asking us to donate and designate our unit for his account. Talk about a good reason to get over your fear of needles! I got out of the routine of donating blood but that's going to change - there's got to be a donation site near my new job. You can find a donation site via the American Red Cross site here http://www.redcross.org/...
Another good way to help others in our community is to get trained in CPR and first aid. The American Heart Association provides this training - you can find a class near you by going to http://www.americanheart.org/.... Every second counts when someone's had a heart attack so if you know what to do, call 911 and then take action.
There's some great information at the web-site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children here http://www.redcross.org/.... They also have tips on how to keep your kids safe, and how you can help others.
So that's it - not breaking news but more a plea to other Kossaks to get involved and help if something doesn't seem right. Get trained in CPR if you're not already. Stop and ask if that little kid's ok if you don't see an adult nearby. Give blood in your community - the summer's coming and there's usually a more urgent need this time of year.