Good Samaritans (Part II)
Background: Recently hero father Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes gave up his attempt to come to the United States and instead turned himself over to the Border Patrol, all to save the life of a injured nine-year-old American boy.
Cordova found the boy wandering in the Arizona desert after the boy’s mother was killed in a car crash on Thanksgiving Day. Cordova, who was promptly deported, was a noble good Samaritan–to learn more, see my recent blog post Illegal Immigrant Hero Father Deserves Medal and Visa, not Deportation.
I was very moved by the story of this good Samaritan. When I was younger, I pretty much traveled all over the world, generally by myself. (The picture is of me, age 19, visiting Jim Morrison’s grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery cemetary in Paris. The cemetary also contains the ”Communards’ Wall/Mur des Fédérés” where 147 Communards–among the last defenders of the Paris Commune, the world’s first socialist revolution–were executed in 1871.)
While traveling I occasionally ended up in situations where I was dependent upon the kindness of a stranger. I discussed a couple examples in Good Samaritans (Part I). Another example is below.
Once while traveling in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the Soviet Union in the early ’80s, a factory worker and his wife invited me into their apartment. I had been going around the apartment complex just looking, because I had wanted to see how the average Russian lived and what their lives were like. The factory worker was fascinated by meeting an American (this was in the middle of the great Cold War tensions of the early Reagan years). I spoke some Russian, so we could communicate a bit.
Once in his apartment, predictably, we ended up drinking and, also predictably, I couldn’t come anywhere close to keeping up with him. He proposed some toasts and made a big, emotional, heartfelt toast to Richard Nixon of all people. He told me how much he wanted peace between the US and the USSR, and that he liked Nixon because with Nixon there was peace, and didn’t like Reagan because with Reagan there wasn’t peace.
He had a record player and put on a Rod Stewart record and asked me for translations of the lyrics. I did my best in my weak Russian.
It got very late into the night and he informed me that it would be very difficult for me to get back to where I was staying because at the night in Leningrad they raised all the drawbridges so the ships could get through. He insisted I stay with him and offered me a bed.
I got ready for bed and popped my contact lenses out of my eyes. When I popped the first lens out, a hard lens, he started screaming and pointing at me and calling his wife. I couldn’t figure out what he was so excited about. I then understood that he had never seen or heard of a contact lens before and thought I had popped part of my eye out or something. It took a few minutes to calm him down.
Anyway, eventually I laid down in the bed he had offered me and began to fall asleep. A few minutes later there was a little noise and I woke up and discovered that the factory worker and his wife were sleeping in the same room as me–on the floor!
I did my best to explain why this wasn’t acceptable and why we should switch, but the factory worker wouldn’t hear of it.
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January 20th, 2008 at 6:09 am
I woke up and discovered that the factory worker and his wife were sleeping in the same room as me–on the floor!
There are very few Americans that would have done this. Most would not have allowed you to stay in the first place. Most of all, I am sad to say as a pastor that most Christians would not have shown this much hospitality.
The Good Samaritans was about someone that we would least expect to have offered help to someone in need. The Good Samaritan helped beyond all reason and never expected anything in return. The person he helped most likely never knew who offered the help.
Real compassion is rare today. I also contend that most of those who show real compassion have been down in the trenches and have had their share of heartaches. They have been on the other side and they know what it is like to feel unwanted. The good news is that there is someone who cares beyond all measure and I am so very thankful that that someone can use me to show HIS love to those who need it most.
http://www.shatterdmen.com/first_step.htm
January 20th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Shatteredmen is correct, compassion is getting rarer and rarer today. In fact it is the lack of compassion that has created the injustices fathers and men today now suffer. When the courts routinely “judicially kidnap” a mans child to give it to the woman, so they can turn around and steal from the father, claiming it is in the best interest of the child. Anyone with a heart and a shred of decency, knows that this is wrong.
I ,because I have endured this indignity and injustice, now have a passion for anyone who is abused. It is not just for women or other PO litically CO rect persons, it is for everyone. I have little myself due to this God awful racket, but I still try and help others who have even less than I do.
I have been fortunate because I am recovering from the ordeal the state put me through and the day is fast approaching where the state will be held to answer. I don’t want revenge, although the evil bastards would righfully deserve it, no… I want justice. Right the wrong, compensate those damaged by it and make sure it does not happen again. God will take care of the revenge part, I take care of the task he has given me.