Longing for Chivarly

Saturday night I did something that I've never done before.  I called the cops.  I was sitting at home, watching a DVD on my couch when I heard a "smack" sound, followed by a muffled sound.  So I paused the movie and listened.  That's when I heard it.  It was a much louder "SMACK!" (The distinctive sound of flesh hitting flesh.) followed by a woman's scream, then a woman crying.

I jumped up and ran outside, barefoot in temperatures in the teens, and listened.  It was coming from the apartment next door, which I confirmed standing outside the door.  I could hear the crying woman saying "I'm sorry!  I can't help it."  There was a reply from another female voice.

I ran back inside and paced for but a moment, trying to decide whether to go in, or call 911.  I finally settled on the latter, though it took every once of restraint to not go over there with a baseball bat or the hatchet I use for camping and try to rescue the person who had just been beaten.  I reported in great detail who I was, where I was, and what I had heard.  The only thing that kept me still from going over there was fear of cops showing up to find me breaking into an apartment armed.

Here's the really disappointing thing.  Two and a half hours later, when I went to bed (I had to work the next morning), no cops had come.  No one even came to investigate.  What's the point in calling for help if you report that you are an eyewitness (or in my case earwitness) to a crime and they don't even come to investigate.  This isn't New York.  I don't live in that big of a city.  I shouldn't take time to get someone there, especially is a person is in danger.

Maybe that's why chivalry is dead.  It is legally inconvenient.  If I tried to help, I'd be charged, while the assailant would get away with it.  But every instinct, every longing within me, wanted to be the hero, wanted to come to the rescue.  Most men want nothing more than to be seen as a hero in the eyes of the woman they love.  That's why men love action heroes.  John McClain rescues Holly.  Kyle Reese gives his life to stop the Terminator and save Sara Conner.  James Bond shoots the big bad and gets the girl. 

Yet, at the same time, men watch movies and play video games because we're afraid.  We're afraid that we're too weak, just like Adam.  Most people don't know this about the early chapters of Genesis, but Adam was made first.  God told Adam not to eat from the one tree.  Then God made Eve.  Adam told Eve what God said.  When the serpent came around, he asked Eve "Did God really say don't eat that?"  She looked at Adam, and he SAID NOTHING.  He could have stopped it, but he failed.  He was there, and he didn't do anything.  It's right there in Genesis 3:6.  He was there and did nothing.  That's why he got the harsher curse.  1 Timothy 2 explained that Eve was deceived, while Adam sinned willingly.  And we (men) all fear that when we are put to the test, that we won't be enough.  So in our fear, we hide.  We try to avoid the test.  In doing so, we fail by our silence, just like Adam did.

So I hope I did the right thing.  I did what I legally could do.  I wasn't silent.  I spoke up, and put my name to it.  Still, I wish I could have been a knight in shining armor instead of some guy with a cell phone.