put on your helper hat.

anyone that saw the video of the attorney getting shot should be wondering why it took so long for someone to tackle the gunman. it got me thinking - what kind of society are we living in that it takes minutes - and an off-duty sheriff's reserve officer - to stop this guy? if i were getting shot, i'd kinda want someone to intervene on my behalf. i mean, i know that most of the people standing around were just protecting themselves from harm, but what happened to courage? even common decency. even help.

not to toot my own horn, but last night, my better half and i (ok, it was just him) put on our helper hats and move some strangers' new-in-box tv into the third floor of their house. we are neighbors, so that's what people do - they help each other. it does seem pretty natural to me. but then we got to thinking, "if they get robbed tonight, they'll probably gonna think it was us." i realize we're cynical and it's an extreme thought, but unfortunately, i don't think it's that off-base.

in fact, we had sworn off wearing our helper hats recently. the other day, my better half assisted an elderly woman out of a thorny bush she had been trapped in by her wandering dog and its attached leash. he gingerly supported her 200-pound frame as she climbed down from the planter. and then he noticed a smell. evidently, the woman had clambered up to the planter to retriever her dog's - er - business - and it was smeared all over her and was now all over him. after throwing away his shirt, throwing away his freshly-brewed coffee and throwing a fit stomping home, we thought after this we had most certainly fulfilled our duty and sufficiently fueled our good karma points to the brink of whatever they're stored in.

in our city of angeles, horrible things happen so frequently that we are forced to don this guarded, defensive, sardonic posture just to get through what should be (helping someone move something) or shouldn't be (helping someone not get shot) an everyday thing. but why should it be so hard to put that little old helping hat on?

that said, you can't just stand there while an attorney gets shot (no jokes please) or walk away seeing your neighbor struggle with a tv or even run the other way when you see a crap-covered old lady. you just can't.

can you?