I saw a story on the Today show yesterday that made me get all teary. I know, I know, it doesn't usually take much to turn me to mush but this one was different. They had put a man out on the street with a little 7 year old girl. He was supposed to grab her and the little girl was supposed to scream ,"He's not my dad!' and act like she was being abducted. Wanna know what happened? People walked right on by! According to the interview they were there for hours replaying the situation over and over with the same results. What if that was your child or grand child? It scared the crap out of me. What if that was my precious child screaming for help and people would turn to look at my baby being abducted and simply walked away? Are we so wrapped up in our selves these days that we don't want to get involved, even if it could save a child's life? It was heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time.
One ray of light came into the story in the form of 3 young men. I just wanted to hug them! They heard her yell, they stopped and watched the situation to make sure she wasn't just throwing a fit with her father. Then they spread out and went to her aid! One of them pulled up in a truck and jumped out to help the other two men. They also found an older woman dialing the police as the men approached the "kidnapper" that time. They were hero's in this mothers eyes. I hope there is someone like that around if my children ever need help. I also hope I'm brave enough to step up for someone else.
Something else popped out at me from this story. The youth of today get a bad rap, you know? Out of all the mom's and dad's and grandma's and grandpa's walking by that day it was 3 young men that stepped up. I think they deserve a break.
9 comments:
Good grief, that video had my tearing up as well! I can't believe it took so long for someone to finally stop and help out that little girl! It's just sad.
What if this had been real? I can't imagine the guilt I'd have if I walked by that girl then saw her little face on the news that night.
Sad an incredible. In Spain, in the center of Madrid, we had one year ago a similar tv experiment with a guy who simulated to hit his girlfriend/wife. Absolutely no one come to help the girl. As I said, sad and incredible.
It's a sad world we live in
I'd like to think if that happened here in our small town, everyone would stop and try to help. I'm not so sure people would help in other bigger cities though. They should do that experiment in Toronto or Montreal. I would be very interested to know what the results are.
OK...if it was in NYC...I could totally see that...sad...but true.
I missed you.
Scary stuff, although I think it's the same everywhere - everybody is too scared to challenge individuals, whether it's something as trivial as someone riding a bike on the sidewalk, right through to abducting a child.
I believe America is a terrible, terrible place. People are so afraid to offend anyone, they say nothing and do nothing to avoid it.
That IS a scary story. We are all responsible for each others' safety.
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