A man, who considers himself just a typical New Yorker, acted with split second instinct and heroic judgment to save the life of a teenage youth who had fallen from a New York City Subway platform after suffereing a seizure. This "average" man left his two young daughters on the platform, jumped down onto the tracks and used his body to shield the youth in the sunken cavity between the tracks as the oncoming subway train ran over them both. They both survived, though the cavity was only about 24 inches deep.
Wesley Autrey, a Black ex-Navy veteran, went where few of us would have dared to enter. He decided to risk his own life to save a youth he did not even know. He risked leaving his two young daughters fatherless, acting in a manner in which he believes that any true New Yorker should respond in a crisis. Some have called him foolish for undertaking the risk. What if he had been killed in front of his daughters? But Mr. Autrey apparently only knew that he was confronted with a crisis in which a young man faced life or death; and that he, Mr. Autrey, had the opportunity to do something about it. So he acted, and the youth's life was saved.
Whether his actions were naive and foolish or heroic bravery is perhaps in the mind of the beholder. But not since the firefighters and police responded to the disaster on September 11, 2003 have New Yorkers seen such a clear exposition of the selflessness and outright humanity that New Yorkers are capable of in times of crisis. Mr. Autrey sought no personal gain, and appears to be a man of limited means despite prior military service to his country. Indeed he even lacked the resources or the motivation to dress up in a suit and tie for national media exposure on the Today Show the next morning when the story broke. the only adornments he brought with him were his daughters, who witnessed their Daddy teach them a lesson in courage, humanity and humility that we all could benefit from. There will undoubtedly be hype and hoopla, but it is very doubtful that such attention was on the mind of Mr. Autrey when he dove beneath the train.
Perhaps we can take a page from the lesson book of Mr. Autrey. If he was capable of heroic response to a major crisis, by acting upon his beliefs and stepping up to help his fellow citizen, may we not feel emboldened to step up and support and defend our beliefs and help our fellow citizens as we face much less daunting challenges each day? Can we retrieve and revive an America "of the people and for the people," working together to help each other for the benefit of all, the way Mr Autrey apparently sees it? Or will we continue in the wasteland of self centered opportunism and arrogant greed and venal corruption that ignores the needs of our fellow man, our community and our children?
And what lessons are we teaching our children? Are we modeling courage and sacrifice to our children? Or are we supporting and praising short sighted greed and corruption that will leave an impoverished legacy for our children. The object lesson Mr. Autrey has brought us comes at an auspicious and an opportune time. May we study it well as we embark uppon the journey into 2007. And let us be thankful that men like Mr. Wesley Autrey are not yet extinct.
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