To help and heal
IN these columns, I have occasionally mentioned words received daily from Dictionary.com. This US-based service sends a ‘Word of the Day’ and explains their meanings.
While quite obtuse words are sometimes delivered, I persist in an endeavour to expand my “word power” as our English teacher mother would always encourage her five offspring to do.
Dictionary.com generally delivers nouns, verbs, etc — but very rarely proper names.
So, I was at first a tad surprised two weeks ago to receive ‘Samaritan’ as the day’s word. Samaritan as in the parable – perhaps the most famous of Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament (Luke 10: 30-37).
By way of very quick summary, when Jesus was asked “Who is my neighbour?” he responded with a simply marvellous story of a person from Samaria — at that time, a people despised by the Jews — who took enormous pity on a man (presumably a Jew) who had been attacked on a roadside within an inch of his life, rescued him and paid for his recovery, while religious leaders walked by on the other side.
Since known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the story has more than passed the test of time to the point where the word Samaritan has entered our English language as a descriptor of a person or group who show mercy and do good things. Dictionary.com defines Samaritan thus: “One who is compassionate and helpful to a person in distress.”
Virtually on the same day as this special Word of the Day was delivered, I become aware of the extraordinary act of Patrick Hutchinson.
The story was a few days old at that stage but seems not to have received much media coverage in Australia — either that or I missed it altogether!
In the middle of opposing demonstrations in London a fortnight ago, Patrick Hutchinson — a Black Lives Matter supporter — placed a badly injured Far-Right protester in a fireman’s lift and carried him to safety, literally saving his life.
The man had been attacked by a small group of protesters supporting Black Lives Matter, but Hutchinson stepped in with four friends to protect him.
Speaking later, Hutchinson said: “It was pretty hectic, it was almost like a stampede. The guys went in there, they sort of put a little cordon around him to stop him receiving any more physical harm. His life was under threat.
“I just thought, ‘Well if he stays here, he’s not going to make it’. So I just went under, scooped him up and put him on my shoulders and sort of started marching towards the police with him whilst all the guys were surrounding me and protecting me and the guy I had on my shoulder. I could actually feel strikes and hits as I was carrying him.”
Images taken of Patrick Hutchinson rescuing a person with fundamentally diametrically opposing views to his have resonated far and wide.
“’I didn’t even think twice about doing it,” Hutchinson said. “I didn’t see colour, I just saw a human being on the floor possibly coming to his end. We’re all one human race. If you’re not there to stop it happening then you’re almost party to it, just by being there and watching it.
“The George Floyd incident that happened in America, if those three other officers who were standing around when George Floyd was murdered had thought about intervening like what we did, George Floyd would be alive today. Things would be very different. So we weren’t going to be party to it.”
Of Hutchinson’s act, United Kingdom MP Claudia Webbe commented simply: “A national hero — this is what humanity looks like.” Indeed.
These COVID-infiltrated times have brought out human nature in very diverse ways. The vast majority has been heartwarmingly good but occasionally not. Some of the protests against the worldwide Black Lives Matter campaign have become very ugly.
Patrick Hutchinson’s selfless, courageous act that day was the epitome of a Samaritan – showing compassion towards a person in dire distress. It was a moment of our shared humanity, a sign of hope and, goodness, do we need this right now.