A Tribute to Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax from the Coaches on the Edge.

Laurie: Early Sunday morning a crime took place. Although there was a mugging and a stabbing, those are not the crimes to which I am images referring. Some woman on the streets of Queens was in the process of being mugged when a homeless guy rushed to her rescue. For his efforts he was stabbed. Although injured, he attempted to chase the mugger until he could no longer run. He fell to the sidewalk. Now here’s where the crime comes in.

elizabeth: I thought this story was going to stay local here in New York and that Hugo’s heroic stance against this coward would just fall off the news radar. But something happened. The national news picked up the story and it got attention. People started talking about it and started to think about how they would have reacted to a man lying on the sidewalk, waiting for death to end his pain. What would you do? And this 31-year-old had just lost his job and his home, so he was not some seasoned homeless person who knew the streets. I could have been him. You could have been him. The economy does do that to people, but it did not take away his capacity to try to save a woman from being mugged.

Twenty-five people did not value his life enough to try to help. And I am talking about after the knife attack. When nothing bad could have happened to them.

Laurie: How do you watch a man die on the street? What do you tell yourself when you go about your disconnected life while his ebbs out in a pool of blood? I know we like to think we are extensions of our computers and iPhones, but bottom line is that humanity should be the supreme ruler. Have we become so desensitized that death doesn’t even impress us?

elizabeth: The Passerby Effect is when people copy what other people do in times of crisis. If nobody is stopping or has stopped, then they are not going to. It’s somebody else’s problem. This young man has a family; his body was claimed already. There will be a funeral and then he will be buried in his home country. So much for being part of the American Dream. We are teaching people through our TV programming, movies, video games to not give a damn when it comes to another human being. We are becoming a nation without a soul. It feels very lonely and scary out there in the streets when so many people don’t give a damn.

Laurie: Rather than call the likes of Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Donald Trump and any other man-made celebrity that we foolishly worship heroes, maybe we should emulate Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax. He was truly a hero by helping a total stranger in a time of need. Unfortunately he lost his life. Lord knows, he sure could have used a hero. Or just a human being.

elizabeth: You know as well as I do, that this will fade from people’s memory and they will go right back to worshipping technology and will mistake reality TV for truth and companionship. Compassionate action towards another human being is just too much work. They just don’t give a shit. Thank you Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax for being a hero. I just wish that it didn’t cost you your life.

If you would like to learn more about Laurie, please go to her site: Empowered Life Journeys.

Stop by at elizabeth’s site at: Branching Out Life Coaching

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