Asset or Liability

I wasn't sure what to write about this week. My mind kept coming back to a story I've never told here. I looked it up while I was writing. February 23, 2013. Thirteen years ago today... God works in mysterious ways.

I was a college junior and Army ROTC cadet standing next to a fence at the NASCAR Nationwide race in Daytona Beach. Cadets supplemented security for Race Week every year. It wasn't glamorous. It was just what we did.

On the last lap, Kyle Larson's car went airborne and hit the fence at a gate- the weakest point in the catch fence. A tire and its metal linkages flew into the stands. A car engine was burning where my friend stood seconds before.

When the dust cleared, there were casualties. I later read reports of something like 30 fans bring injured. I remember a girl named Caroline, maybe 12 or 13, who had been hit in the arm (which looked broken to me).

What I remember most wasn't the crash. It was everyone else. Phones out. Filming. People standing completely still while others needed help.

What I Took With Me

I drove home angry. Not at anyone in particular, but at myself. No tourniquet. No real medical training. Present and willing, but underprepared.

That night pushed me to get serious about being ready. I didn’t like that feeling.

In situations like that, every person is one of two things:

An asset or a liability.

The bystander effect is real. People convince themselves someone else will act. Sometimes nobody does.

You don't have to be a hero. Take a first aid course. Carry a tourniquet. Know where the exits are. Be the person who moves toward the problem instead of filming it.

That’s all for this week.

Are you prepared to be an asset?

Don’t settle. Be relentless.

— Hunter