Praise for heroes on the home front
Ed Szydlowski didn't hesitate when he heard a woman's cries for help as smoke billowed from her home. The Carpentersville village engineer from Hampshire immediately ran to the rescue.
Comcast employees Josh St. John and Brad Dedina were just as quick to run to the aid of a Lake in the Hills man when they saw him scramble out of his bedroom window onto the roof as flames shot through windows and smoke filled his home.
Passing motorists, including an off-duty Elgin paramedic, slammed to a stop on a busy highway to help crash victims, including two children hurled from their car last Friday night near the Route 31 exit on the Jane Addams Memorial tollway in Elgin.
An elderly woman who lay injured inside her home for three days is alive thanks to an alert, 9-year-old paper boy from Sycamore. Ethan Hall noticed her papers and mail had stacked up and alerted his parents, who called police.
An Iraq War veteran was one of the first on the scene when two gravel trucks collided with a tire delivery truck in Barrington Hills Monday. He tried desperately to aid the entrapped delivery driver who did not survive the crash.
We often hear -- and tell you -- of bad news. And there is, sadly, no shortage of man's inhumanity, unkindness or perversity to fill our pages. Nor does there seem to be any lack of the bizarre and cruel.
But amid the gloomy, heart-rending headlines of tens of thousands lost in a cyclone in Myanmar, thousands more to an earthquake in China, and difficult economic times on our own home front, it is heartening to know so many among us are willing to rise above.
That is why the bravery of people like the two cable guys turned rescuers stands out.
So often, people hesitate to get involved, say "It's none of my business" and go on their way.
It certainly would have been easy for the Carpentersville engineer or Iraq veteran to keep on driving instead of stopping to lend aid. Few would have blamed the tollway motorists if they had not stopped. It's a high-speed road and they put themselves at risk.
It would be easy for people, already busy, stressed and distracted, to justify racing on with their lives. But many among us don't. Amid the devastating human toll out of Myanmar and China and the increasing stress of job loss and escalating costs of gas and food on our own home front, we're seeing people step up.
Local Rotary Clubs, including those in Northbrook, Park Ridge, Villa Park and plenty more, are reaching out to provide emergency aid to cyclone victims despite the political challenges that have stalled similar relief efforts in Myanmar. They're doing the same for the earthquake victims in China.
It's heartwarming to know that despite so many challenges in their own lives these days and amid so many negative headlines, we can find hope from those who go above and beyond for others right here in the suburbs.