This was a post that 17 year-old Eagle Scout Kaleb Michel put on Facebook. The speech that Kaleb refers to by Mike Rowe was at Jamboree last summer.
“I attended a speech given by Mike Rowe this past summer. He told us how disconnected we have become from everyone and everything, about how we probably don’t even know the name of the common handy-men that work on our furnaces, plumbing, or of people we see on a regular basis.
Yesterday I witnessed a whole new level of disconnection. I watched a truck rear-end a van in town, and heard children screaming in fear for their mother, as the crippled van sat stagnant on the road. Four grown adults stood not even thirty feet from the wreckage, just staring. They stared and listened to the children scream. Disconnected.
I ran to the van and pulled the poor children out, three of them, helped them into their coats and led them and their mother inside a nearby gas station. I don’t expect any praise for what I did because I take pride in knowing that I did the right thing. It just amazes me about how disconnected the other people around were, four grown adults, probably with children of their own, so amazed by the wreckage, so disconnected that they couldn’t and didn’t even move.
Try your best to be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of crisis and emergency and stay connected. Have the courage to act. That is what I want you to take out of this.”
