Good Samaritan nation

By Michael L. McManus

It was a very cold day in Seoul, 2 degrees Celsius. Cold, north wind blowing strong.

I was crossing a very, very busy eight-lane street at a major intersection in Gangnam. With my briefcase blowing in the wind, I got halfway across the pedestrian island, when I heard a crashing sound. A collision of two motor scooters right there in front of me. One of the bikers emerged safe and unshaken, looked back, then roared away. I looked back….the other biker was down, skidding across the pavement, bike going on its side into traffic, the human biker, like a log, rolling over and over on the road in deep, roaring traffic.

I honestly thought he was gone. No movement, cars rushing past him on both sides. He was limp, lying in the exact middle of one of Seoul’s busiest crossings on a very cold day. No one stopped. No pedestrian leapt forward to help, no one. Cars just kept whizzing by.

I was still at the halfway point on a safe island just watching. He started to move, then rolled over, then stood up, blood on his head. He managed to grab the scooter and walk it to the island, staggering all the way. He was now right there before me. I could not just walk on by. Then he collapsed down right near my feet on this pedestrian island. A few seconds earlier my impulse was to pull him out of traffic. Now there was no choice but to help. I asked him, “Can I help you? How can I help you? Are you alright?” Rather stupid questions….

“No English…” he said, as he waved me off in clear pain lying there. Another biker stopped and talked him to his feet. He talked to him to try to help, and then roared off into the cold.

This injured guy would make it through this. He was young and strong and is a survivor. I waited. Soon he walked his bike to the safe corner and was on his cell phone. It was time for me to go. I could do nothing more.

That reminded me of the time I was sitting with a friend having coffee on a terrace in the city. A young woman in her 20s with a leg brace stumbled and fell. I waited for a split second, and then ran over to help her up. No one else was there, as if nobody noticed.

And there was the incident when a friend was taking me to the KTX station in the south of the peninsula, when we drove up to an intersection where a small dog, a Pomeranian, I am sure, was standing in the middle of the traffic lanes, shivering from the cold. I looked long and hard. Unattached to anyone, any car, just sitting there, looking at each car that went by, as if to say, “Come back, please, don’t leave me here.”

I spoke up to my friend... He also saw the dog. He commented that some cruel people probably left him. I looked back; the dog was just stationary, not moving out of the middle of traffic. I took a deep breath. I asked my friend if he also liked animals. He sighed and said, “Yes” with a heavy tone. He told me he just lost his dog of 17 years. He said he was incapacitated for a week. I knew he saw that dog.

Bikers are brave, out there on the highways. I just saw the CEO of Harley Davidson interviewed on CNN. He said that the Harley market is for people everywhere who yearn for freedom, independence and boldness. That spirit must live for bikers, like the young man I will never forget in Seoul traffic.

But, what about a society that would distinguish itself worldwide by being of the Good Samaritan spirit? Can it exist? It seems to require that even in busy streets and cafeterias and on streets where good dogs seem lost, that a spirit exists. It would be a spirit in the population to want to help, a courage to jump in, and risk one’s self. It could become a national spirit. It would have to be in a nation that has a strong democracy that appreciates life and has a collective sense of bravery.

In my mind, it is a biker that saves a biker. A biker that saves a lost dog, a biker that may save a nation.

All it takes is for one to save one. And in the most special of cases, one can save many. And it can last forever. Think of it….a nation that would be that courageous and shine in the world as a light in the darkness. Someone to save someone from oncoming traffic, someone to pick you up when you fall, someone to return your lost dog or give it a home. That would be an amazing nation, a Good Samaritan Nation.

Michael L. McManus is founder and president emeritus of the California International Business University in San Diego, Calif., and currently guest professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul. He can be reached at mcmismism@aol.com.