The rain was coming down rather hard as I was driving from a meeting. Before heading home,I was going to the store because we needed juice (my son loves all kinds of juice) and vegetables and chicken. And, although I definitely didn’t need them, I also planned on getting some peanut butter cookies.
The freeway that I took has a circular on-ramp. As I was about to complete the circle and merge into traffic, I saw a car that had spun-out into the mud. There were two other cars that had already pulled to the side to help. I thought about not stopping. After all, it looked like there were already enough people, but I decided to pull over and lend a hand.
There were about 8 people there. Two of the people were friends of mine who were also at the same meeting. Everybody else was a stranger.
People were discussing the best way to move the car. The problem was that the front tire couldn’t get any traction because of the mud.
We tried a straight push but had no luck. Then we tried rocking the car back-and-forth. That seemed to do the trick, and, for a moment, we thought we had enough momentum to get the car unstuck.
Unfortunately, we were wrong. We had made progress, but not enough.
Meanwhile, another car pulled over and someone else decided to help.
We knew what we needed: Something hard that we could put under the tire. But where were we going to find that?
Another person decided to try driving the car. He drove the car forward, then put it into reverse. He kept doing this. He hoped the rocking motion would give us the momentum that we needed.
Back and forth; back and forth; back and forth.
All the people on the outside of the car who were on push duty felt the car’s momentum growing, and as it grew, our encouragement and resolve also grew.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I yelled out a primal scream, just like you see those massive bodybuilders do when they are lifting their personal best.
The people that were not pushing the car were helping direct traffic. Like I said, this was an on-ramp to a freeway, so cars were moving pretty fast.
Finally, we got the car unstuck. Everyone was happy. I don’t even know whose car it was; I was just glad that I could help.
One of the most interesting things about this event was that there were no highway patrol officers to lend a hand. I am not commenting on the fact that they didn’t appear; I am commenting on the fact that no one talked about calling the highway patrol. They were less than an afterthought. Our attitude was: With a little ingenuity and a little muscle (very little in my case — see the above-mentioned peanut butter cookies), we can help this person.
President Obama believes that we need the government to provide basic, foundational things. Really? Like help when you are stranded on a public highway?
I drive on a public road because the private company that built the road was forced to give it to the city or county. The only reason I use a US satellite is because the US won’t allow a private company to launch its own. The only reason that the special forces exist is because only government employees can commit murder and get away with it.
Whenever I can, I rely on the free market and on free people. Why? Because it and they are better. “Better at what?” President Obama may ask.
Victor J. Ward first came across libertarianism by reading Murray Rothbard's Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy and Walter Block's Defending the Undefendable. He holds a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and an MBA from Santa Clara University. He is author of The Smartest Christian In Babylon: why and how faith trumps science -- a common man's journey towards God
Spontaneous community assistance of strangers? Do you have any idea how many laws you broke doing that?
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