Last Saturday at my local shopping centre my wife and I witnessed an incident. There was a commotion and panicked voices near the bottom of an escalator. People were shouting and looking at a scuffle halfway up. Three youths dressed in trackies and hoodies ran up the escalator, shouting as they did so - one of them pressed the stop button.
I'm rather ashamed to say that my initial thought was of some sort of fight or scuffle was taking place. After all, all the ingredients seemed to be there.
The reality was somewhat different. As I drew closer, I could see an elderly man was in difficulty and was close to collapsing or loosing his balance and falling backwards down the entire length of the escalator. His companion had cried out for help - unable to take the weight of the man herself. Hearing this - the three "hoodies" immediately ran up the escalator. Two held the man from the side and the third held him from behind. Without doubt the actions of these young men saved the man from serious injury. After the stop button was pressed they were able to calmly walk him to safety and sat him down before checking he and his companion were able to seek further help. They then slopped off in that familiar "Hip-Hop" strut.
Reflecting on this incident later in the evening, I felt heartened that a group of young people who are increasingly being branded as the root of all evil responded to an emergency almost instinctively. The incident was fleeting and transient. The did not know the elderly man; they did not seek praise - they just helped someone who was in a bit of trouble.
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