Editing Blog/2024-08-14/Fearless American Women

Something that has always struck me about my time in the US has been the fact that women here are positively fearless. Whether this is a cultural learning they have or that society here is safe enough that they can be so is unclear to me, but I have often been the beneficiary of this.

What prompted me to recall this is [https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/mob-of-teens-destroys-car-and-brutally-beats-driver-in-downtown-los-angeles/ this news article about a man who was being beaten to death by a mob and was rescued by a young woman].

<blockquote>
The blows knocked him to the ground. Bazarbai Uulu said he was in and out of consciousness during the brutal beating. 

"They surrounded me again and they started punching me, kicking me," he said. 

From what he remembers, Bazarbai Uulu said a young woman pulled him away from the mob.

"She literally saved my life," he said. 

Bazarbai Uulu believes that if the woman didn't step in, the mob would have beaten him to death.
</blockquote>

I have been fortunate not to have encountered enemies like that, but I have placed myself in unpleasant situations solely through my own fault, and on two occasions that I remember well, it has been young women who have rescued me.

I don't know who called 911 for me when I had [[Motorcycle Accident|my motorcycle accident]] but I am just as grateful to that person.

== NC State ==

[[File:Gorman St Grad Student Residences in Raleigh, NC.jpg|thumb|Picturesque. The view outside my window as I sat with crutches.]]

[[File:Google Maps Screenshot - Hunt Library to ES King Village.png|thumb|As you can see it's quite the way with one leg]]

When I lived in Raleigh, NC I destroyed my knee while skateboarding. Instead of heading to the hospital, the adrenaline was sufficient for me to make to skateboard to the library where I filled out my application to intern at LiveRamp<ref>This actually worked out since that's where my career got started and where I met [[Julie Yu Kang|the woman who would one day become my wife]]</ref>. Since it was already late, it was past midnight by the time I was done. When I tried to get up, I found that my knee was frozen open - I could not bend it without immense pain. There was nothing to be done but to attempt to walk back home and deal with this in the morning. Skating home (a quick 8 min job) was out of the question.

So there I am, limping along in the dark with overgrown trees hiding me at almost 1 AM carrying my skateboard, when a car goes by. The brake lights turn on, the driver pulls a U-turn, then comes up next to me and rolls down her window. At this time of the night, this young woman (who was surely barely out of her teens) offers me a ride home.

That was incredibly helpful since I was in an immense amount of pain and I still had a fair bit of rough uphill way to go.

== Car Crash ==

[[File:Subaru Forester 2017 - crushed by rollover.jpg|thumb|Unpleasant for the driver, and very nearly fatal]]

On another occasion, I rolled over my Subaru Forester. This was also shortly after midnight, when I was returning from San Jose to San Francisco. Having rolled my car over I climbed back up onto the freeway exit and waved my hands for help.

Car after car passed by. I was there many minutes, trying to grab people's attention. Until finally a minivan stopped, again driven by a young woman (this time I would have guessed in her mid 20s). She called 911 for me, let me call my friend on her phone, and then waited with me till the police were there. I was so incredibly touched by her assistance to a stranger on the road at an outlandish time.

== Conclusions ==

Overall, I have found people very helpful all around the world but I think it's notable that someone who would generally be more vulnerable than others would step up to help.

===== Footnotes =====

[[Category:Stories]] [[Category:Blog]]