Racism: Why Don't I Mind My Own Damn Business?

      That's a question I often ask myself, and I'm sure others ask about me, too.  And the answer is because... a child is my business, and yours, too.
      Today, I had just finished eating a big lunch, and I was dumb, fat and happy. I believed a nap awaited me in the near future, perhaps just moments away,  I climbed into my fairly new car, pulled out of the parking lot, and came to a stop sign.
      This was on Nocallula Mountain, in Gadsden, Alabama, across from the entrance to the picnic area. And there on the sidewalk, headed toward the end of the park, was an older man and a woman... and a child.  There was something about them that made me look again.  Something was not right there.  It suddenly came to me that they might be going to walk down the mountain, where there is no sidewalk and no room to breath. Only a lot of fast traffic.
      I shrugged it off and turned right, toward my house, only a few blocks away.  "So what?" I asked myself. Maybe I was wrong.  Maybe they were going to one of the few houses on the right way up ahead, before the road drops off quickly and dangerously down the mountain.
     I say dangerously, because if you have ever been down that road, you know there are someplaces where there is no room at all between your car and the rock restraining wall.  It's not all that rare to miss an oncoming car by just a few inches.  And if traffic were coming up, and someone were walking down, and you were going down, and it all happened at the wrong moment, someone is going to die.
     I kept on going toward my house, but my mind would not let go of it.  I tried to tell it that they probably lived on the left side of the road, where there were a lot more houses they could cross over to, if they lived over there.
     Part of my mind kept saying, "You don't know those people, what are they to you?  What does it matter you what happens to them?"      But the other part of my mind wouldn't listen.  Two words kept coming back to me. They were these: "The child." 
     I am all for letting adults do more or less what they want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody but themselves. If they want to walk down a dangerous road, that is their business. But a child is different. A child is completely in the hands of adults, who sometimes need help themselves.
     And supposedly, I am an adult.      Even though I was almost home, I swung the car back around, even as part of my mind was saying, "What are you doing? This is crazy! Mind your own business!"
     I didn't.  I went back to where I last saw them and... they were gone.
     Part of my mind then said, "See, I told you so, you dummy! They were just going to a house and they got there, and now you are here, having wasted your time, and feeling like a complete idiot to boot.
     So once more I turned the car around and headed back home, only to at the last possible moment, catch a glimpse of them, back on the road, walking again.
     What in the world was going on, I told myself.  Something was definitely up.  So I decided I would just drive into the park parking lot and watch, and see if my hunch was right, they were going to try to walk down the mountain.
     They kept walking, and now the man was carrying the child, who was no more than a toddler.  They were going very slow.  It wasn't the hottest day of the year, but it wasn't cool either. All my instincts told me this was something they, the man and woman, did not want to be doing.  I told myself then, once more, ok, I would take one last chance and offer them a ride down the mountain.
     I think the whole thing that kept me away from them from the beginning, was not wanting to be a fool, if it turned out they weren't going far, and just wanted me to "mind my own business."
     I came out of the parking lot and turned left, and there they were, and the woman had just sat down near the fence in the grass, and then the man did too. Then the child. They were tired.
     I began to feel that my hunch was right, but I had to ask anway.  So I pulled into the middle lane with my window rolled down and stopped, and asked, "Sir, are you walking down the mountain?" and he replied "Yes, we are," and I told him, "Well, I'll turn around and give you a ride."
     Immediately the woman said, "Thank God! We have been praying for a ride" and then thanked me, and then the man did too.
     Then, even the child, who I saw was a little girl, looked at me and smiled, and said, "Thank you,"
     I smiled and told her and all of them "Your're very welcome," and went and turned the car around.
     It turns out that they were the grandparents and had been to the park, and had had a flat, couldn't fix it, and were trying to get the child back to their daughter at 1PM, as they had promised, and had left out walking because the daughter was not answering the phone to come and get them.
     I took them down the mountain, and to the daughter's house, and on the way they told me their names and the little girl's name, and I told them mine.
     At the house, the woman said, "God Bless you for this," as did the man. "And told me they would repay them," which I declined.
     All the blessing or reward I needed was knowing I had got that little child down the mountain safely.
     She was safe in this world, for a little more.
     Earlier this morning I  went outside when I heard both my little dogs raising cain in the front yard.  There were two mockingbirds very close to the house, on the wires leading into the laundry room, and putting all of this together, along with the presence of my cat Jazz, I saw that he had captured the mockingbird's baby - apparently one who had not done so well on his first attempt to fly.
     I shewed the cat away, and saw that the little bird was more or less unharmed, just very afraid.  Jazz  - being well fed, had been playing with it, and hadn't had time to hurt it yet, 
     By now my other cat, Rainbow City, had showed up, and before I could get to the little bird, I had to get two dogs and two cats into the house and out of the way - alll who were very interested in sniffing that flying thing.      Meanwhile, the two Mockingbirds  were still making all the racket they could, trying to lead all of us away from their baby, while the two dogs continued barking and the two cats were meowing.
      Finally after I got all my animals in the house one at a time, I went to check on the little bird, who not badly injured, hid under something and would not come out.
     I decided the best I could do for it was leave it alone, and go inside.
     That worked. No more than five minutes later, I went back out and the bird family had been reunited, and were gone. All the noise and ruckus was over.
      Now, I don't care what you call me, a liberal bleeding heart, or whatever, I was happy that bird lived, as there was really no reason for it to have to die.
     And though helping that bird made me happy, helping that child get down the mountain safely was a million more times gratifying to me.
     There are a lot of people in this country that believe that human life is sacred, and abortion is wrong.  I am now one of those people, though I haven't always been.
      But I have noticed unhappily, that once a child is born, far too many people no longer care about it. Or them.
      To these people, their rule of thumb seems to be, we'll fight for your right to be born... then once you are born, you are on your own,and it doesn't matter what your parents are like. Good, bad, or somewhere in between. We're through with you.
      I can't do that.  If I see some little way I can help, like giving those grandparents and their grandchild a ride, I believe it IS my business, to help them.
      And when I read in the paper that some swimming club in Philadelphi made more than fifty black children who had paid to swim, LEAVE - just because of the color of their skin - then that is my business as well. 
      And  I hope you see it as your business as well.
      That's the reason I have written this column, today.
      To remind you that if you are the Christian you say you are, then we ARE our brother's keeper. Not just while he is in the womb, but after he or she is born as well.  And we are their keeper's while they are newborn's, infants, toddlers, little boys and girls, teenagers, middle aged people, and finally, senior citizens as well.
      We are our brother's keeper to EVERYONE who needs our help.
      And the way we do this, in the very least, is to make and enforce laws that treat people equally and fairly. ALL people. And to vote for people who will do that: people that will unite us and not divide us.
      That is the very least you can do.
      But there is always room to do more, if you are willing to get over your fear of being wrong - the fear that I had when I was trying to decide whether to "mind my own business" or not.
      Everybody who knows me well knows that I am definitely not anywhere near, being an angel.
      This story was not written to try to convince you I am.
      It was written because I saw some people with a child, who I thought was about to enter into a very dangerous situation, and I overcame my reluctance to get involved, and "helped" those people and that child, past the danger point, and on their way through life.
      I'm not Bill Gates, and I don't have or know people with a lot of money, so I can't make a difference anywhere in this world financially, nor on a large scale.
      But I can do small things to help this world become a slightly better place, and you can too.
      Let's try to do that.

      Will Bevis
      July 9, 2009.