So what would you REALLY do?

I was fighting through traffic this morning in silence and I was recounting a program I watched on ABC last night called “What Would You Do?” I was completely disturbed by this program; not because of the program, but because of the way certain people responded in different situations. The segment that got my goat the most was the “Little Girl Left Alone with a Stranger: When Bystanders See a Stranger Approach a Little Girl They Must Decide What to do.”

Here’s a link to the story and video.
http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=6888300&page=1

I was very alarmed and disturbed to watch these scenarios unfold; Major PROPS to the Moms, Dads, and Grandfather that confronted the two different “actors” used in the scenarios. But according to ABC news “Over the course of our two-day experiment, three people out of 14 let the "strangers" walk off with little Katie. Those who intervened said they were concerned for and protective of the child, and that it was necessary for people to look out for one another.”

Are you kidding me? That’s over 20% in the experiment that let this 10 year old little girl walk off with two different strangers. I couldn’t believe it as I watched this poor little girl, Katie, on the swing. Two dads who intervened in particular stood out to me. One guy tried the approach with the little girl that she should play with his daughter instead of going to help Predator guy look for his “Puppy.” The other Dad just plain got up in his face and asked him why he was even talking to her without her parent’s permission. This particular scenario was one where the predator was someone she knew from her “block.” But this dad was having none of it and even threatened to call the police.

But my FAVORITE hero was the Grandfather Ted Horne, who actually chased them down into the parking lot after the guy convinced the little girl to go with him to find his lost dog. He stopped them and asked her is she’d come to the park with the man. When Katie responded no, that her nanny went to the bathroom, he immediately told her to come back to the park area and wait for her nanny to come back. Then told the predator he was going to call the police.

“Horne escorted Katie back to the playground. She asked him what he thought she should have done. 'I think that was a bad man,' Horne replied. 'You should have said no, he was a stranger'." Way to go grandpa!! I have to cry when we hear these constant stories of missing children; especially if it could have been easily avoided if one person would have been paying attention to that child.

Now this show has other situations that it challenges people at such as a man in his 90’s who can’t figure out how to start his car but then gets behind the wheel and drives. And people actually helped the guy. HELLO – if he can’t start his car, maybe he shouldn’t be driving!! Another is a real estate agent that discriminates against a Muslim couple during an open house.

But you get the idea, it’s a thought provoking show that makes you wonder, how would you really react in that type of situation. I hope that I would be one of those “heroes” that would stand up and let my voice be heard. But I guess until you are in that situation you can’t really answer for sure.

Until Tomorrow,
Mel