We have created a Neighbors’ List to identify persons doing extraordinary things for their Neighbor(s). By Michael McCorvey

 

Jesus Campos is a true hero. He was dispatched to a door alarm on the 32nd floor. He went up there to investigate the open door, and as he was doing his job, he came under fire. A security guard at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, was shot by Paddock six minutes before he began shooting into a crowd of 22,000 people enjoying the country music festival down below.  Campos was struck in the leg, retreated and notified his dispatcher. This was a remarkable effort by a brave and remarkable man.

Campos’ bravery was “amazing” because he remained with officers, provided them with the key to enter the hotel room, and continued to help [officers] clear rooms until our officers demanded that he go seek medical attention.”

 

Marine Veteran, Taylor Winston, is another example of everyday people becoming heroes. While the events of the Las Vegas shooting were unspeakably horrific, stories like Winston’s–that showed how utterly amazing people can be–were a reassurance that the world is not an entirely awful place. While Winston said numerous times that he doesn’t want to be called a hero, he’s one in my book.

Taylor Winston, a Marine veteran who stole a truck after the shooting in Las Vegas to transport about a dozen people to the hospital in two trips. (Winston eventually returned the truck.) A used-car dealer in Gilbert, Arizona has given Winston a truck, as a token of his appreciation for his bravery and selflessness.

 

It became a ride of life — not just death — because of Austin Cox, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine corporal from Piqua who turned into an “angel” that Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Austin and his Marine buddy Mike Vura, both stationed at Camp Pendleton outside San Diego, CA were in the crowd of 22,000 at the Route 91 country music festival that had played for three days in a 15-acre open space near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the south end of the famed Las Vegas Strip.

 

So that’s when Austin and Mike ran in, they started helping people over the fence. They were picking people up and literally throwing them over it. My brother was like, ‘It’s better to have a broken arm than be dead.’ ”

As he was helping people, Austin picked up Katrina Hannah, a University of La Verne graduate from California, who just moments earlier had been laughing and dancing as part of a bachelorette party for her best friend.

“He saw she had been shot and when he picked her up, she got shot again. He carried her over and tried to take cover.”

Hannah had wounds in her neck and shoulder and was bleeding badly.

“Austin kept his finger in her (neck) wound so she wouldn’t bleed to death. Once the shooting stopped, “I picked her up and made a run for it,” Austin told Elex Michaelson, a reporter for KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

 

Jonathan Smith is likely to spend the rest of his life with a bullet lodged in the left side of his neck, a never-ending reminder of America’s deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Smith, a 30-year-old copy machine repairman, was shot that same Sunday night while trying to help save people after a gunman opened fire on the crowd at the Music Festival.

 

He had driven to Las Vegas from Orange County, Calif., on that Thursday to celebrate the 43rd birthday of his brother, Louis Rust, a big country music fan who had attended the festival in the past. They spent the weekend enjoying the music and had scored seats close to the stage for Jason Aldean’s prime-time performance Sunday night. .Rust realized what was really going on and told the entire extended family — all nine of them — to hold hands and run. By then, it was a stampede.

 

He grabbed people and told them to follow him toward a handicapped parking area in the direction of the airport, a large field with several rows of vehicles. A few young girls weren’t fully hidden. Smith stood up and moved toward them to urge them to get on the ground. That’s when a bullet struck him in the neck. “I couldn’t feel anything in my neck. There was a warm sensation in my arm,” said Smith from the Sunrise Hospital lobby Monday afternoon as he was waiting for his final discharge. He has a fractured collarbone, a cracked rib and a bruised lung. These young men are all hero’s and showed true courage as they helped thy neighbors.

“Rise Up”

 

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last shared some thoughts with you. I sat down to write when there was yet another controversy, this time involving another Gold Star Family.  But, I decided to wait to post a message as I have been deliberately trying to steer clear of politics and policies.  Love Thy Neighbor, the idea behind it is to be positive, uplifting and to remind us of the Golden Rule…. Love Thy Neighbor’s central idea is to practice kindness and for each of us to play a small role to bring civility to our discourse.  Bring humanity back to our interactions.

 

Since that day a couple of weeks ago when I sat to write, there was the terrorist attack in New York City and there have been 19 mass shootings resulting in 12 deaths and 59 injuries. If you add the shooting in the Texas Church this past Sunday, that toll increases to 39 deaths and 79 injuries.  Many of these shootings sadly, based on so many horrific events, do not make the national news.

 

While I am just a few posts into Love Thy Neighbor, there have been days when I’ve wanted to just simply abandon the whole idea, because perhaps people don’t care.  Or perhaps we are too far gone as a society.  But, then, something happens that gives me encouragement to keep forging ahead with the message and with the hopes that in some small way, it gives someone pause to take a nice action rather than a rude or mean-spirited one. That it contributes to a movement that brings us to community rather than factions, kindness and decency rather than hatred and disrespect.

 

So, one of my daughters shared with me the story of Baltimore middle schoolers singing Andra Day’s “Rise Up,” which has gone viral.  Robin Roberts introduced the youth on a segment of Good Morning America and shared that there have been over 21 million online views.  The attached link and title of The Washington Post article sums it up, the children’s rendition “helps soothe a troubled nation.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/10/13/baltimore-middle-schoolers-viral-rendition-of-rise-up-helps-soothe-a-troubled-nation/

 

I keep the faith for numerous reasons. And I am hopeful with the knowledge that there are at least 21 million others out there looking for the positive and to be uplifted.  For a beautiful moment in time, it came from a group of Baltimore middle schoolers that understood the power in the idea of Rising Up.

 

If you have a couple of minutes and want a boost, I encourage you to watch the Good Morning America segment.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj0rqi_5rHXAhVV5GMKHYCrDK0QtwIIOzAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FGMA%2Fvideo%2Fchoir-rise-performance-viral-special-message-andra-day-50549281&usg=AOvVaw3cJLXKVIlhSsogrULWYT_7

 

 

Barry

Love Thy Neighbor Blog #3

This week in the midst of another controversy that unfortunately divides us there was the powerful reminder that the men and women in our military who are willing to make the supreme sacrifice do this as a love of country. To be willing to die for ideas, principles, or someone else, I would submit is the most true or pure example of loving thyself. The second of the Greatest Commandments core to Jewish and Christian religions is this idea “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The two are inextricably linked.

 

Three weeks ago, we experienced the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. We also witnessed and learned about heroic acts, big and small, that saved lives. There was the mother who lay on top of her daughter to shield her from bullets. They both made it out safely. A young man got out, then went right back in. He said, “I had two arms, I had two legs, I hadn’t been shot, I was healthy and I knew people were in danger,” he told MSNBC. “And I just needed to go back and help wherever I could.” A husband died while protecting his wife. He grabbed her and started running when she felt him get shot in the back. There were countless stories of survivors who they wouldn’t be alive if not for the help of a stranger.

This blog is dedicated to those heroes in the military who fight and die for their neighbor. Dedicated to the heroes in Las Vegas who were enjoying a concert and instinctually saved lives of those around them. These heroes epitomize, self-love that compels self-sacrifice on behalf of others – their neighbors.

I continue to welcome anyone reading this blog, to share and help plant the seeds of the spirit, essence and intent of Love Thy Neighbor.  I will periodically share some thoughts and things that inspire me with the hopes of keeping the conversation going.

 

Barry

Love Thy Neighbor Blog #2

 

In my intro post to Love Thy Neighbor, I shared that I was a husband.  For this post, my wife, Ruth wanted to join me.  Ruth is a wonderful woman that I’m blessed to be married to.  She’s a fantastic wife and mother, highly civic-minded, and passionate about seniors.  She’s the CEO of a caregiving business that primarily provides home care to seniors. Its funny… like most seniors, she refers to her clients as “her seniors”, but I don’t think that she sees herself as a senior yet.

 

We’ve been thinking a lot about all of the recent disasters and how as a society we need to be more prepared, more ready to assist and provide aid for the most frail and vulnerable amongst us. Even in Florida, that by most accounts, is one of the most prepared states for a disaster like they experienced with Hurricane Irma, informed its residents that only seniors with caregivers could come to the shelters.  How could that be?  What were the seniors that didn’t have caregivers supposed to do?  Those seniors, the ones without the caregivers, we would think were at least as likely if not more likely to be in need.

 

There was an image that was one of those that became to define Hurricane Harvey. We were haunted by this image. It was the picture of stranded seniors, many suffering from dementia, in a nursing home type facility. The floodwaters were up to their waists. Fortunately as the owners of the home went to Twitter, their call for a lifeline was answered. The tweet went viral and shortly thereafter the residents were rescued.

 

It’s no surprise that the most vulnerable during Irma and Harvey were the elderly.  When we are developing plans, have we had in the forefront how we would get seniors mobilized and that they would be first in terms of our evacuation plans and not an afterthought? Or that all seniors, with or without caregivers, that have a need, will be served?

 

While the rescue of the seniors in the nursing home outside Houston was an incredible story about the amazing positive things that can come out of social media, it also really highlighted that as we think about our neighbors, it needs to be all of our neighbors, and Ruth and I would argue, it especially needs to be those with the most need and most frail amongst us.

 

Unfortunately, as we close this post, we have to mention the horrific Las Vegas massacre, which is another terrible disaster. However, this one is the result of one human causing the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, with 58 people losing their lives and 489 injured. These tragedies can’t continue; we must start loving our neighbor as they self.

 

Barry and Ruth

 

I welcome anyone reading this blog, to share and help plant the seeds of the spirit, essence and intent of Love Thy Neighbor.  I will periodically share some thoughts and things that inspire me with the hopes of keeping the conversation going.   Also, after hearing of so many heroes and individuals that came to help those in need in Vegas, that I have decided to begin a list of heroes and others that truly believe in and show real signs of “Love Thy Neighbor”. Send me their name, city and what they did. Until next time.

 

Barry

 

 

Love Thy Neighbor Blog #1

 

I’m a husband, a father, a grandfather, uncle and friend. In my profession I was a family physician, a professor and a business investor.  And on the side, I had a thing for gadgetry.   In all of my roles, well, with the exception of being a gadget enthusiast, I have had the opportunity to give back, to contribute to society.  And like many fortunate to make it to an older age, I am looking back and assessing my legacy.  I have a lot to be proud of such as being a good husband (I got better with this one with age) and raising children that are successful in their own right and contributing members of society.  I practiced medicine in underserved communities, like South Central Los Angeles.  I built a hospital; I was a role model for young African American physicians in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and into the new millennium. And I taught hundreds of medical students and residents with the hopes that many would find their life’s work as I did in uplifting and giving dignity to patients that might not receive that in other aspects of their lives.

 

Even with these things in my life, as an octogenarian, I still want to contribute. Ironically while I spent over 60 years practicing medicine, it is now, as my body is breaking down with age, surviving multiple cancers, having diabetes and Parkinson’s, I am really in awe of how miraculous the human body is.  But, that is a topic for a different blog.  I can’t practice medicine as I previously did, but I can still give something.  One of the great things about social media is that it can provide a platform for someone like me that still wants to play a role in society.  But one of the unfortunate things about social media is that it is also a place where people spew hatred.

 

The discourse and rancor in our society is upsetting. Watching people even in the same communities and neighborhoods treat people unkindly.  Watching people across and within gender, ethnicity, religious groups and lines tear one another down, lack compassion and often times just human decency has been the impetus for creating this blog.

 

In my 80 plus years, I have seen things that I thought that I would never see. The turbulent 60’s with a young President and civil rights leaders assassinated.  I’ve watched in awe the promise of the country when Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the moon and when the country elected the first black president; these are at the top of that list.

 

Last month, less than 10 days apart we saw extremes. Watching the recent white supremacist in Charlottesville marching in khakis and without hoods is on that list of things that I thought I wouldn’t see.  But juxtaposed Charlottesville, there were the images in Houston during and following hurricane Harvey, which give me hope.  In times of devastation, people of all walks of life pull together, help their neighbor, extend a kindness to a stranger, and show compassion.  As I start this blog today, on September 11, it probably more than anything epitomizes this dichotomy that out of peril and an atrocity like 9/11, humans will bond together.

 

So, it is in this spirit of the best of humankind, that I have decided to start this blog, Love Thy Neighbor.  My hope is that even if there are just a handful of people that are moved to comment, it was worth the effort.  If it spurs a positive instead of a mean-spirited or negative act by someone, it was worth the effort.  And, if we could start a movement towards more human kindness, that would be superb.

 

I welcome anyone reading this blog, to share and help plant the seeds of the spirit, essence and intent of Love Thy Neighbor.  I will periodically share some thoughts and things that inspire me with the hopes of keeping the conversation going.

 

Barry