A Christmas angel
Good Samaritans
Alice Stewart, a political consultant from Little Rock also known for her radio talk show, will have a wonderful Christmas, thanks to the unlikely kindness of a stranger.
Stewart recently endured a long, trying, hard day of travel between New York City and Little Rock.
She’d arrived weary in the late hours and agreed to take a traveling companion to his apartment. She didn’t realize that in the process of opening the security gate to his complex, her entire world had fallen unobserved into the street.
Her wallet containing substantial cash, cards and many contacts lay available to any passers-by as she drove away.
Later at home, she went onto Facebook to find a message from first-year UA law student Shelly Shaw. Seems the 20-year-old Ms. Shaw had happened across Alice’s wallet and taken it inside to try and hopefully seek Alice.
But it wasn’t until she received Shaw’s message that Alice realized the very centerpiece of her organizational life was missing.
“If Shelly hadn’t been thoughtful enough to seek me out, I’d have had to start way back in Times Square and track my steps all the way home that day. Shelly’s an angel. Her kindness and generosity saved me.”
I asked Shelly what made her search for Alice rather than keep the money and anything else of value when no one would have known.
“I was raised in South Texas and taught what belongs to others is theirs, not mine. I’m just thankful I found her wallet. It really was her whole life in there.”
Rest assured, Shelly Shaw, so is Alice Stewart.
‘Don’t be stupid’
I’ve always been enchanted by the little community of Alpena Pass and its turn-of-the-century stone buildings lining U.S. 412.
One store in particular named “Junk N Stuff” seemed to invite me inside. So I did just that the other day. Sure enough, there was at least one of everything imaginable.
My favorite item became the handscrawled sign signed by Peggy Meeks, the owner. It read: “Make us A offer, we don’t mind. But don’t be stupid.”
In an attempt to test her definition of stupid, I gathered three items and made an offer that Peggy, a gregarious former 14-year Wal-Mart employee, accepted.
And I left feeling a smidgen smarter.
Servin’ and protectin’
File this under slice of life. Pat Flippo of Fayetteville decided to ride for one full loop on an Ozark Regional Transit bus. Catching the bus at Hillcrest Towers in Fayetteville not long ago, he was riding with about six other passengers. But the bus suddenly pulled to a stop near Razorback Road where the driver proceeded to sit in silence for several minutes.
“He didn’t turn around and say a word,” said Pat. “By then, we were all wondering what we were waiting on.”
Finally, Flippo asked the driver why the bus was sitting idle and was told he was waiting on maintenance. “I thought, why didn’t he just tell us initially? After all, some folks’ lives do involve schedules.”
On his own schedule, Pat exited and looked around. Spying two uniformed officers, he strolled over to ask if one “might like to be a Good Samaritan.” After explaining the predicament, and the fact Pat has difficulty walking, one officer agreed to drive him back to his car parked a mile away at Hillcrest.
“Just goes to show you how decent most policemen really are. You know, they protect and serve,” he said. While I’ve never considered police officers as Uber drivers, this one did the right thing as a Good Samaritan that day.
Collective ‘experienceobia’
I keep hearing the term Islamophobia bandied about, supposedly to describe American citizens who understandably are shocked by the random mass murders committed by radical Islamists to the beastly screech of “Allahu Akbar!”
These widespread smears have been directed at those concerned about the proposed flood of Syrian “refugees.” That’s the horde our current administration is intent on bringing into our nation. We know just how valid such concerns are when the FBI and other agencies say there’s no way to properly check the backgrounds of so many Syrians (and likely infiltrators from other nations).
With that fact, as well as the valid problem of being unable to distinguish between the majority of peaceful Islamists among us from the deceptively peaceful husband and wife radicals in San Bernardino, we all understandably seek the wisest approaches to avoid the further slaughter of our citizens.
When I read the definition of “phobia,” I find: “A type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational.”
Considering this danger is hardly “irrational” in light of the mass murders by relatively few radicalized Muslims (and there are many millions of entirely rational citizens across the country who are justifiably fearful over this issue), it’s altogether valid to question use of the unfounded and calculated smear term “Islamophobia.”
I’d call such concerns more a case of “wizened discernment based on collective experienceobia.”
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.