Choices of the Individual: Taking Action vs. Being Acted

Upon

Choices of the Individual: Taking Action vs. Being Acted

Upon

What Did…

What Did…THEY

Kitty GenoveseKitty Genovese

On March 13, 1964, at 3 a.m., 28 year-old Kitty Genovese was walking from the parking lot to her apartment as a serial rapist/murderer approached her. As she cried out for help neighbors looked out their windows which caused the attacker to run away. But when no one came to her aid, he returned to continue the attack, stabbing Kitty twice in the back.

The Scene:

Kitty GenoveseKitty Genovese

The morning following the 32- minute attack, a total of 38 neighbors admitted to investigators that they heard Kitty’s cries for help. During the attack, not a single witness intervened or called the police, resulting in the woman’s death.

What THEY Did:

Michael, Latoris and Michael, Latoris and CedricCedric

Coming home from a basketball game these three friends witnessed a truck swerve into the lane of a gasoline tanker that contained 13,000 gallons of fuel. The tanker hit the truck, causing the tanker to flip on its side. The tanker driver jumped through the fire, out of the tanker, but blacked out before reaching a safe distance from the impending explosion.

The Scene:

Michael, Latoris, and Michael, Latoris, and CedricCedric

Michael, Latoris, and Cedric made the immediate decision to run to the driver’s side and pull him to safety. Moments later the tanker exploded.

What THEY Did:

KathleenKathleen

Driving to work in the morning Kathleen saw a 7 year-old boy, Joshua, being chased by two pit bulls. Joshua screamed for help.

The Scene:

KathleenKathleen

Without any form of protection or weapon in her vehicle, Kathleen jumped out of her car and ran towards Joshua. The dogs continued to attack and Kathleen threw herself over the boy, using her body as a shield. Kathleen saved Joshua from the dogs. The dogs bit off her eyebrow and she received bites all over her arms and back.

What SHE Did:

BayerBayer

In the late 1970s the Bayer company discovered a medication that would prevent and stop bleeding in hemophiliac patients. To produce the medication, Bayer recruited and paid donors from high-risk HIV populations to donate their plasma which would be used in the drug.

The Scene:

BAYERBAYER

After as many as 6,000 - 10,000 hemophiliacs in the United States became infected with HIV Bayer stopped selling the product in the United States and created a safer medication. However, because of stocks and the amount of product still available, Bayer continued to sell the old, virus-infected medication overseas infecting hundreds with HIV.

What THEY Did:

Wesley AutryWesley Autry

January 2, 2007: While waiting for the subway in Manhattan with his two children, Wesley Autry and other passengers witnessed 19 year-old Cameron Hollopeter having a seizure. Following the seizure, Cameron stumbled onto the tracks as an oncoming train approached.

The Scene:

Wesley AutryWesley Autry

Seeing the lights of the oncoming subway, Wesley dove onto the tracks, and without enough time to drag Hollopeter away, he threw himself over his body in a drainage trench between the tracks. The cars passed over Autry and Hollopeter but both men were okay.

What HE Did:

Love CanalLove Canal

The Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, was first used in the 1920s as a landfill for chemical waste disposal when the surrounding area was sparsely populated. In the 1940s the Hooker Chemical and Plastic Corporation owned the land and buried 22,000 tons of toxic waste in the area. During the 1950s, when the area began rapidly expanding, the local school board wanted to buy the land for a new elementary school.

The Scene:

Love CanalLove Canal

Knowing the history of the land, and the existing chemicals underground, the school board bought the land from the chemical company. The result was a neighborhood of high cancer rates, low birth rates, and birth defects. By the 1980s the government relocated more than 800 families from the Love Canal area.

What THEY Did:

NOW…

What will do???

YOU