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He knows what is right or wrong
Posted by Raven on April 28th, 2007
We don’t see too many kids like this anymore.
Seventeen-year-old Travis VanKuren was walking to his car at the Wal-Mart in Springettsbury Township at 7 p.m. last Wednesday when he saw a man and a woman struggling in the parking lot.
VanKuren, a slim, 5-foot, 9-inch junior at Dallastown Area High School, took a closer look and made eye contact with the woman involved in the fight.
“She looked over at me and started screaming for help,” VanKuren said. The woman also screamed “help” at two other people in the parking lot who looked at her and walked away.
VanKuren didn’t.
Maybe this is why he isn’t like so many others, who chose to walk away?
Word of VanKuren’s heroics is beginning to get out at his high school, however. Master Gunnery Sergeant Mark Jovich, VanKuren’s instructor at the high school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, said VanKuren’s actions are being relayed to every JROTC class as an example of leadership.
“We’re very proud of him,” Jovich said. “He knows what is right or wrong, and he steps up. It would have been very easy to walk away, and a lot of people would have walked away. He was calm, cool, and collected. That is leadership. I think he handled it exactly how he should have handled it.”
VanKuren, a cadet lieutenant in the JROTC, said he wants to pursue a career in the military, either in the Marines or in the Navy, like his father.
The world needs more heroes. Men and women who aren’t scared of their own damn shadows; who would come to the defense of another person in need of help. Who just do the right thing.
H/T to reader eros total
April 30th, 2007 at 9:49 am
We don’t see kids or adults like that anymore for good reason.
Experienced police officers know that the most dangerous person he’ll be facing during a domestic disturbance call is often the victim. More than a few policemen, and more than a few Travis VanKurens have been injured or killed by either the abuser, the victim, or both. It isn’t unusual for the victim to be so frightened of the abuser that she will attack anyone who comes to her aide in the hope of proving her loyalty to the abuser and perhaps avoiding his wrath, if only temporarily. Abused women know instinctively that their abusers simply have a periodic need to hurt someone. If she can divert the satisfaction of that need onto someone else, then she can stay in his majesty’s favor for a while and avoid a beating. Victims of abuse will often tell the police that they were attacked by whoever tried to come to her aid, thus closing the door on the victim’s ability to press charges.
It’s childishly simple to identify violent men before getting involved with them. Violent men are not manly and exciting. They’re assholes. Don’t glorify the behavior of assholes and then expect some bystander to risk his life to bail your sorry ass out of trouble.
Travis is very lucky he isn’t dead.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Police are not the only ones who rate the title of hero. I don’t even give them the title to be honest. I respect them. They take on a lot of personal responsibility and risk in their work. But it is WORK for them.
The difference between a hero and a cop is the hero isn’t paid to do what the cop often is.
Travis is not alone. There are many many who are like him..who stand up to evil and hate and confront it. Some heroes die standing up. Others are wounded profoundly. That’s what makes them heroes WOMD. Police are not always THERE when they are needed. ordinary average people are.
May 1st, 2007 at 11:38 am
Ordinary, average people who end up being killed or injured and out of work because of it receive no assistance or thanks from any of our society’s wonderful and caring institutions. The true victim in these circumstances is often portrayed as a fool or a vigilante who should have known better.
I don’t hate women Raven. I hate stupid, arrogant women who throw themselves into the arms of the nearest, steroid bloated sadist and then expect someone like me to risk his life to bail her dumb ass out of trouble. I’ve run into a few women who behave this way and they’re just delighted as long as their bad boy is torturing someone else. It’s so exciting and manly to watch apparently. Then when his majesty turns on her, I’m supposed to play the hero?
When pigs fly.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
WoMD,
So we are to assume that every woman being assaulted by a man in public is dating that man, or is otherwise in his company by choice? The article makes it clear this was not the case in this instance.
My experiece is that they usually are, but I don’t see why that means I should assume that in every case and leave a fellow citizen to whatever fate the assailant may have in store for her.
But you’re also talking to the guy who walked into several punches in high school to have reason to lay a beating down because a guy was smacking his girlfriend around in the corner of a locker bay. School rule was one of those no telerance policies where to fight you had to be struck first and have witnesses attest to that.
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
My experience shows me that women who date these thugs are victims of many things, namely verbal and emotional abuse. Some are battered…
Sure there are Bonnie types in every Clyde relationship. But it would be a cold day in hell that I would walk away from a damsel in distress, or anyone else. That is inhumane. And wimpy.
May 4th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
If you want me to value your safety…
Value mine, and do so consistently, from a very early age.
I have a long memory for cruelty.