Don't Just Stand There - Do Something!

This week the media reported the particulars of President Obama’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, a surging wildfire, a tropical storm and at least one hurricane. We get so used to reports of the foibles of celebrities and athletes along with reports of catastrophes around the world that the news becomes easy to ignore. But every once in a while a story comes along that is both unexpected and shocking. Such is the case with the recent recovery of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard in Antioch, CA.

It is difficult to fathom that a person could go missing for more than eighteen years and then be found in almost any circumstance. The conditions by which Ms. Dugard and her daughters were discovered will be the subject of many news reports in the coming weeks, conversations in offices all over the world, and fodder for researchers and psychologists for many years to come. Recent reports of the failure of “the system” to uncover Jaycee’s whereabouts will serve as the tip of the iceberg in an examination of opportunities that existed to free this young woman from her captor.

The officers* at UC Berkley who broke this case will be heralded as heroes in the final analysis of any case study. The actions of these officers go hand in hand with a lesson that we try to instill in our students – one in which we ask them to be “active bystanders” if they witness an event that calls into question the safety of some other person. Somewhere, right now as I am typing this blog entry there is a person, maybe two, or maybe dozens who watched the finding of Ms. Dugard and her children in horror. Every person who says, “I knew it” is a person who could have ended the agony in which Jaycee and her daughters lived for many years.

Not long ago citizens were called upon to look out for one another in airports and on planes. Post 9-11 alertness put a stop to a would-be shoe bomber and the flood of phone calls to the FBI stopped terror plots in locations all over the country. These events should not be forgotten and along with what we witnessed this week in Antioch, CA should serve as a reminder of what we ought to be doing for one another. If you question the safety of any person, it does not hurt to take out your phone and make a call.

* To UC Berkley Officers Allison Jacobs and Lisa Campbell…Nice Job!