Neerja Bhanot
Fear gave her courage.
What does fear give you guys?
It made me home bound loser.
I couldn’t help but feet like a pussy after knowing about this lady.
Neerja Bhanot
Fear gave her courage.
What does fear give you guys?
It made me home bound loser.
I couldn’t help but feet like a pussy after knowing about this lady.
I’m as fearful as the next guy but I say screw it and I go where I want.
There’s an old saying:
“God watches over fools and madmen.”
From 1990-95 I lived on one of the worst streets in my big city. Drug use and selling drugs ran rampant on this street and the street was known city-wide as a place to score drugs. I saw a few houses being raided by the police. Police helicopters would often fly overhead during the night, sweeping the area with a searchlight and yelling at criminals or suspected criminals through a bullhorn. I used to see the occasional hooker walk by.
But for 5 years I walked down my street and the nearby streets at night to catch a bus and go to 5 AA, CA, or NA meetings a week and then walk back home by myself. In 5 years there was only one incident that could have gotten serious but for 5 years, except for that one incident, no one really bugged me.
She wasn’t dealing with chronic, relentless fear, though. She was certainly a very brave and heroic person, for sure, but she was rising to the occasion in the midst of a very intense, life-or-death situation, and was also compelled by a strong, protective instinct to save those children. So not to downplay her heroism, but it’s two different things. She wasn’t worn down relentlessly over year after year after year, and she likely had the full force of her instincts and adrenaline backing her up. Obviously those things combined with her impressive inherent personality, but again it’s just two very different situations, between a plane hijacking and being worn down over years. So don’t beat yourself up.
I wouldn’t get carried away comparing myself to others. There are always people better than you, and there are always people worse. A lot of it is situational. We rise to the occasion.
In dire situations, you never know how you’re going to react, the best thing is to prepare yourself mentally, just in case. You never know–you just might surprise yourself in a good way!
true story (cops have details, so it’s been reported, they were aware, there were cameras on the bus, but it’s documented, not making this up)
In 2011 (after meds kicked in), I was in a situation on the city bus where this passenger attacked an older, immigrant passenger (strangling him with some kind of thin rope)…anyways, both myself and this other woman intervened while everyone else literally walked off the bus to wait for this dude to finish his violent act (more than a dozen people were standing outside after getting off the bus). I may have broken the dudes fingers prying his hands off the guy’s neck. The bad dude ran off the bus, was never caught, but strangled dude lived and went home that day.
Shockingly, this reminded me of a story of a Greyhound bus murder that someone posted on a different thread…I guess it could have gotten waaaay worse if nobody had intervened (bus driver got off the bus, too, cops weren’t called until after we’d chased him off and the bus had driven a few miles…)
Fear still makes me hide under blankets, but it was the anger of injustice that got me up. I didn’t want to go home and explain to my mother that I watched a man die and just watched—that would have been horrible to say, so I stayed on the bus. Later, I went home and hid under the blankets, lol. It’s different when there’s someone there who needs you—there’s this desire to help other humans that I think we all have as human (except trump prob doesn’t).