Close to fifteen years ago, I watched a scene unfold before my eyes that I thought was horrible. I was getting a bagel and tea at a local restaurant in Chicago and had just walked out of the door and was headed back to my car. Before I had gotten halfway there, I heard a girl scream as she was running through the parking lot. "Somebody help me. They are going to kill me" she cried at the top of her lungs. Two men followed her in hot pursuit, both at full speed.
Without thinking, my adrenaline kicked in and I took off in a dead sprint through the parking lot, directly towards the two "thugs" in hot pursuit of this poor "damsel" in distress. As I neared the first guy, I gave him a forearm shiver (football move) and knocked him to the pavement. The other guy was just a few yards away and within seconds I had caught him and tackled him to the ground. The girl sailed through the parking lot and on to safety. Mission accomplished. Or so I thought.
As the two young men picked themselves up off of the pavement, they started cussing me out like drunken sailors (Now that I think about it, I never have heard a drunken sailor cuss). "What are you doing you fool?" they were yelling. "Leave that poor girl alone" I shouted back. "She just stole product from the grocery store you idiot", they yelled back. At that point, I felt about one inch tall. I had screwed up really badly. The bad "guy" (girl) got away. I had tackled her pursuers, the employees from the grocery store, that were trying to recover the store's product that had just been stolen.
If I had a chance to do it all over, and if I didn't know what was happening, would I still do the same thing? No, probably not. Back then we didn't have portable devices with cameras and phones and text messages and quick-dial emergency apps at our service. I most likely would take a pic, call the police, and "document" everything from a distance. Especially because I am fifteen years older and probably couldn't catch anyone anyway. But I would like to think I would take action.
But today I think the "bad" guys count on the "good" guys not doing anything. We are so caught up in our daily activities and busy lives that we don't want to get involved. We think somebody else will. I am guilty of letting my opinion be known, but not taking things to the next level, where my actions can really make a difference.
I want to become more aware of those people around me that need help and do something. I need to write my congressman more often. I need to take part in rallies for things that I believe in. We need to lend a helping hand or take time to listen to someone that is hurting. It is apparent to me that the people that I don't agree with are active. All I have to do is to turn on the radio or the television or look on Facebook and I am blasted with the opposition and their opinions and can see the actions they are taking. And it is apparent that more and more people are needing a helping hand each and every day.
And sooner than we know it, if we don't make our voices heard and our opinions known and take care of those around us that need help, we will wake up one day and things will be too far gone to do anything.
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