Circle of Hope

True story.  There is a circle of people in front of the supermarket standing around a woman of about 65 years laying down on ground.  Almost everyone is staring down at the lady, whose dress and slip are torn and pulled up above her hips.  There are at least 5 cell phones out and no one is moving to help or talk to the lady.  No one had called 911 or even bothered to talk to the old lady who is moaning on the ground.

I asked if anyone had called 911 (no one had) and instructed one of the people with a phone out to call. 

This is a phenomenon is called "The Circle of Hope (COH)".  It is characterized by people standing around a person in distress.  For a reason I don't understand they are almost always in a circle and they are "hoping" help is on the way or that someone has called for help.  People are inherently good..that is why they stop.  But making the decision to act, is much harder for most people.

I asked someone to call 911, pulled her dress down, and did some rudimentary first aid.  Nothing I did here was remarkable, not a single thing.  Basically called for help and made sure she did not make her injuries worse until the FD got there. 

If you have not seen a COH, you eventually will.  The easy ones are the old ladies laying down on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store.  The harder ones are those people or couples who land right in front of you.  They are the ones that are spinning out of control and people end up getting caught up in their stupidity.  If they are left completely unchecked, they end up being a threat to themselves or the people around them. 

These frigging people are almost always oblivious to everyone and everything around them.  People have an incredible capacity to adapt to increasingly abhorrent or bad behavior by other people.

A quick rule of thumb is that if you consistently need to step over, step around or change your behavior to avoid what these people may or may not do, its time to do something.   If you find yourself wishing someone would do something, report it, or deal with it you are part of the Circle of Hope.  I hope you have a clear image of standing around an old lady with a busted pumpkin and her dress hiked way up in front of group of strangers.  Do something, it does not have to be elaborate, it just has to be something.  You will end up waking up the entire COH and things will take an amazing turn for the better.  

Sometimes it is as simple as calling the right number, pulling down the dress, and making sure it does not get worse until help arrives.

Love Dad