NO Win Situations

Bumper Sticker on my car in high school.

Student teaching as a college senior.

I was talking to a friend of mine tonight and she told me a story about what happened to her yesterday. She was in a parking lot yesterday and saw a lady back into another car. The lady looked at the car she bumped into and then walked into the store. She waited in her car until the man who owned the car came to the car and she told him what she saw and where the woman went. My friend then went to work. My friend was in a dilemma that she didn't know how to get out of. She could have very easily driven away, but then the man would never have known what happened to his car, and she knew how that felt. By staying and telling him the lady that hit his car got into trouble. It was a no win situation, someone was going to hurt because of what she knew. While she was telling me this I was thinking of a situation I had 30 years ago. It affected me so much that I still remember exactly what happened. Three of us were driving back from El Paso. The other two I had only known for a couple of weeks. They went to UCLA while I went to Cal Poly. We met during Army training and were on our way home. They were going to drop me off at the airport to fly back to Monterey and they were going to go home in the Los Angeles area. We drove all day and then night. The drive was about 16 hours. All three of us shared the driving, and I was driving the last leg. I had just finished driving through the desert and arrived in Barstow, California needing gas. The other two with me were sleeping while I drove in. This was when most gas stations still had attendants that would pump the gas for you. The other two men with me had never been to a gas station where you pumped the gas yourself. I thought they were sleeping so I went inside the store to pay for the gas. As I was standing in line everyone in the store started looking out the window towards the gas pumps and shouting. I looked out the window and the two men I was riding with were laying on the ground with 8 to 10 men standing around them kicking them. I wasn't sure what I should do. I felt I should run out and help my new friends. I thought it was my responsibility to help them when they were in trouble. I knew if I had done that I would be joining them on the ground with 10 people kicking me. I didn't do anything except made sure the police were called. After watching for about 3 minutes I heard police sirens coming and the people kicking ran to their cars and drove off. The police came and stopped at the gas station and helped the two men I was with. An ambulance came and took them both to the hospital where they were treated and released. On the four hour drive home I apologized to them for not being more help. They told me they were glad I didn't get hurt like they had or we would have no one that could drive. They said they understood my thinking, but were glad I had the common sense to call the police and not jump in and do something stupid. Then the one that owned the car said I could have gone into the glove compartment and he had a gun there I could have used. I thought to myself that I would never have done that, I know I could never shoot someone, and they would have probably taken the gun away from me and used it. I finally got them both back home and their parents took me to the airport and I flew home. After all this time I still wonder if I had done the right thing, should I have jumped in with a baseball bat to reduce the abuse those two took, or should I have done what I really had done and just waited until help came. I sometimes wonder about it even 30 years later!