HOPE
SPRINGS ETERNAL
Hope Springs Eternal, or in the
recent case of a New York City man, springs from the platform of the subway
station at 137th Street/City College. On Tuesday January 2nd, Wesley Autrey
was standing with his two daughters, Shuqui, 6, and Syshe,4, waiting for his
train when 19-year old Cameron Hollopeter suffered a seizure and fell onto
the tracks right in front of an oncoming train. Without hesitation, and
there was time for none, Autrey asked two women to hold his daughters hands,
and lept from the platform. As he had watched Hollopeter convulsing on the
tracks, he had thought to himself..."I'm the only one to do it." There was
not even time to lift the young man off of the tracks, Autrey instead layed
on top of him as the subway train passed over both of them. The southbound
train grazed the top of his hat. He had eyed the trough between the rails
before jumping and relied on his years of construction experience with
"confined spaces" to make the call on clearance. Imagine all this happening
in the matter of a few seconds. Securing your own daughters, who may very
well be about to witness the violent death of their father, calculating a
course of action, and finally, acting upon it. All this without considering
the most obvious question. Your life for that of a stranger.
Autrey remained on the tracks with Hollopeter for twenty minutes while the
MTA workers shut off the third rail. "What I did was something any and every
New Yorker should do: If you see someone in distress, do the right
thing--help out." The humble hero has no idea how wishful his thinking is.
We would all like to think that, given the same circumstances, we too would
leap off the platform to rescue a stranger. I doubt it, and that is what
makes this story such a headline. This man, obviously a father, does not
even consider all the very legitimate reasons why he should not be the one
to leap onto the tracks. The most obvious being the two girls he left
standing on the platform. Undoubtedly, he glanced around and realized, as he
is quoted as saying, that he was the only one who would do it. It is an
uplifting story to me and I try to imagine the depth of my gratitude had
that been one of my children laying on the tracks. The parents of Hollopeter,
from Littleton, Mass., released a statement saying that Autrey "deserves all
of the attention and the accolades that are now being bestowed upon him."
The story has a Frank Capra aura, it hints at a moral for mankind buried
beneath the surface. I imagine angel wings on Autrey who has said, simply,
that he will take his "fifteen minutes of fame" and run with it. Good for
you, and you do deserve it.
Autry has been showered with a trip to Disneyland and a $10,000.00 check
from Donald Trump as well as a medal from Mayor Bloomberg, who has been
calling Autrey "the hero of Harlem." Elliot Sander, Executive Director of
the Metropolitan Transit Authority called Autrey's response a "death-defying
act of bravery. We truly have never seen anything like it." Autrey refused
medical treatment after the incident and returned to work that same day.
Proof again that there are angels among us. That not one of us knows when we
will be called upon to act. However, these are not moments one can train for
or prepare for. The parents of Mr. Autrey, where ever they are, should beam
with pride at having raised a son of such character, that in this
circumstance there was not even the momentary question of what the right
thing to do should be. He has saved much more than a 19 year old Film
student. He has saved the sense of Hope from a shroud of darkness. He has
proven, without science, math or conjecture to cloud the outcome, that there
are still people on this Earth who would save your loved one from disaster.
Without prior relationship, without pride or prejudice, without judgment and
without fanfare or question. It seems like it is a rare thing these days and
if I were the parent of Cameron Hollopeter, I would be gazing at the stars
above tonight in absolute wonderment, that a one-in-a-million guardian
happened to be standing in that particular spot on Earth, at that one
particular fraction of a second in time, when that one particular most
special person on Earth fell unconscious onto the subway tracks. This story
certainly rejuvenated my faith in humanity. However fleeting, it did remind
me, that Hope Springs Eternal.