Heroes among us

I don't think there's any way to tell in advance how you will react when confronted with a situation that requires instantaneous action to save someone's life. Well, that is, unless you are Wesley Autrey or Lenny Skutnik.

Autrey, 50, jumped down onto subway tracks in New York City last Tuesday to save the life of a man who fell while having a seizure. The construction worker quickly covered the 20-year-old film student as the train roared overhead. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Autrey told The New York Times.

Autrey (photo above) joins Skutnik, who dove into the icy Potomac River in January of 1982 to save a woman whose plane had crashed, in the pantheon of Average Joes whose split-second courage made them heroes. Most of us would, more than likely, feel anguish and empathy, but would not have the guts to jump onto the tracks or into the river.

There are, however, a number of people among us who would respond as these two did, but they'll never be confronted with a situation that requires them to do so. It may be the guy who cuts you off and gives you the finger tomorrow or the woman who was impatient with you at work last week. All of us have our positive qualities and negative qualities, just as we are products of good experiences and bad experiences and all have our good days and bad days.

If Cameron Hollopeter hadn't fallen onto the tracks and if Air Florida Flight 90 hadn't crashed into the Potomac then Autrey and Skutnik would just be a couple of guys living out their days anonymously, just as thousands of people are doing at this very moment -- people who have the courage to be heroes if the need should suddenly appear.