An act of kindness: Afraid to help?

In an article I read yesterday, it spoke of someone who had stepped-up and helped a freezing man who was a long ways from home. A "good Samaritan". An act of kindness that isn't often reported. 


The story goes that the man had gone to the Seneca Niagara Casino, in Niagara Falls, NY with a friend, but had gotten stranded at the Tonawanda Reservation when the 'friend' had left him stranded without his wallet, identification and his cell phone. Try as he might, no one would help him or let him use their cell phones so he could call for help.


So off he walked and hitch-hiked...landing in Hemlock, NY. By the time he ended-up on the gentleman's doorstep...he had been exposed to the elements for some 17 hours, wearing only "work boots, good jeans and a New York Yankees sweatshirt".


Joe Cicero...although cautious...helped the man, warming him up in his garage by having him stand near glass ovens, and fed him left-overs from the supper he and his wife had shared earlier. But the stranger, Barry Moore (37) started shivering uncontrollably, was having difficulty swallowing and becoming incoherent. An ambulance was called.


Moore was treated for hypothermia and exposure at Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, then released and hopefully is now at his home (some place between Syracuse and Utica, NY) recovering.


I've thought about this story a lot in the last 24 hours and it saddens me that we have become so stigmatized that we are afraid to help others for fear of our own lives. I am no different...strangers frighten me because I don't know what their intentions are.


I am not afraid of people, per se, but there IS so much danger out there in the world any more that it IS hard to trust others. I find this depressing and terribly sad that we have evolved to this point. 


Most people I realize are good people, and would do no harm to you if you offered to help them...but really...how do we know whether they are or not? All it takes is to look at the news and even the most ordinary looking people are robbers...or...murderers.


I would help someone, but ever so cautiously, taking the needed precautions to protect myself. Luckily we live in a time where most of us carry our cell phones on us...which makes all the difference in the world. 


For them.   For me.