What would you have done?

Would you have kept on driving? Would you have stopped your car and helped?

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/207520

At least a dozen people, including women in their high heels, pulled over to the side of the road near Uxbridge last night and waded into thick mud and shoulder-deep water to try to save a man’s life.
The man’s car had plunged down an embankment, flew through the air and landed on its roof in a farmer’s pond north of Claremont about 8 p.m.

Not only did they lift the truck out of the water and turn it right-side up while gasoline leaked into the water, they formed a human chain and dredged through the water with their feet, looking for a body.

God bless them all.

And every one of those people deserves a medal.

Oh, and not a "participation" medal.

Shit like that reaffirms my faith in the basic goodness of humanity.

 

I would stop. How could you not, unless you stopping would cause a shitload of other cars to crash. I actually think about this all the time when I'm on the road and see a car do something that makes you think they might go flying off the road.

 

I was driving home last winter when a car in front of me suddenly fishtailed on the highway, crossed two lanes, cut back across the road and ended up in the median. I immediately pulled over to the right side, off the road, turned on my blinkers and walked back to where she was. I offered her my cell phone to use and stayed with her until her husband arrived, letting her sit in my car to stay warm.

True, it's not wading through muck looking for a body, but it's all I've had a chance to do.

 

Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr. once said: "There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstance to meet."

I agree with that wholeheartedly.

 

I agree with that in concept, but I do think some people are equipped for certain things and others aren't.
We hear stories about soldiers diving on live grenades to save their buddies.
That is a true hero, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who would do it if that situation arose. We'd all like to think we are that type of person.
But I'm certain there are plenty of people who wouldn't/couldn't do that.
That's the difference between a great man/woman and those who aren't -- it's not doing the things; it's whether they could do those things when the situation presented itself.

 

I agree with you, Okie. I'm really not good in a crisis, even a mild one. When my daughter gets hurt, I have to hold back a giggle-type thing that I have as a nervous reaction. I hate it.

boy friday, on the other hand, is the opposite. A couple of years ago on Thanksgiving weekend, he was driving home and two young kids had gotten into a car accident on a sharp offramp curve. The girl in the car was laying in the middle of the offramp and people we driving around her like she was roadkill. He stopped and applied life-saving measures until the ambulance arrived.

Come to find out, she was sticking out of the moonroof and was thrown from the car -- the car was about 20 yards away from where she was.

I'd like to think I could have helped in a situation like that, but I don't know that I could have...

 

I tend not to stop for anybody, you just never know. But in this case, definitely.

 

Had lunch yesterday with an old friend but it was the first time I'd seen her since her paratrooper son had his right leg blown off at the hip in Iraq in March 2006. Spent almost a year at Walter Reed and now he's back jumping out of airplanes with the Screaming Eagles parachute team out of Fort Campbell in Kentucky. So, no, I don't believe we're born equal when it comes to courage and bravery.

 

And I agree with you CI. That's no bull from "Bull."

 

"Well, if you told me you were drowning, I would not lift a hand ... "