Off Topic: People Band Together when Faced with a Crisis

One of the themes I see out there on the internet while doing research for this blog is that we can expect society to break down into chaos if we are faced with another global financial crisis. The idea is that if there is a huge crisis that causes the banking system to shut down for any period of time, normal distribution channels will break down and basic supplies needed for daily life will be in severe shortage. 

The next assumption is that people will react to this situation by acting only in their own self interest and will do all kinds of horrible things to survive. While we would certainly expect to see some of this going on, let's take a minute to look at the other side of the coin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe, perhaps naively, that most people do care about other people and in a crisis situation most people will band together to try and lend a hand if they can. While the media tends to focus on the civil disorder that does sometimes break out in crisis conditions, we do need to be reminded now and then that many people act in selfless ways to help others all the time. I present to you this situation that happened recently in Lubbock, Texas as just one example. First, here is the background. It centers around the 9 year old son of a popular tennis coach in Lubbock:

"On Tuesday afternoon, nine-year-old Luke Siegel, son of former Texas Tech men's tennis coach and current Lubbock Cooper Pirate head tennis coach Tim Siegel, was involved in a golf cart accident in Lubbock, Texas that resulted in severe head trauma. The avid sports fan, baseball player and New Orleans Saints' fanatic was rushed to the hospital where he went into cardiac arrest upon arrival. Luke is a fighter - he knows no different - and has continued to show that over the last 48 hours. Doctors are optimistic the Cooper Pirate will return home but not without quite the road to recovery with brain damage, a collapsed lung and complications with his left eye due to the golf cart rolling on top of him causing several skull fractures and brain swelling. It is a waiting game as doctors continue to evaluate the extent of the brain damage and the next several hours will be key for the entire Siegel family, friends and loved ones."

Of course this is a huge crisis for the family involved. Not only do they have to endure the stress of seeing all this happen to their son, the medical costs to deal with this situation are huge. Fortunately, they were not left to face this problem alone. People in Lubbock rallied to lend a hand in a very generous and selfless way.

Here is how the problem was described on a popular message board for football fans of Texas Tech University (located in Lubbock and my alma mater):

"Don't want to post to much but have been at the hospital these last two days and this young man is fighting and continues to fight. He's unfortunately got a long road ahead and his sweet family has had a lot of support at the hospital ... It's been great to see so much support from the Lubbock and Texas Tech community for Luke and the Siegels. 

Luke is still dealing with some swelling on his brain and there is some hope that they'll be able to do some surgery tomorrow or over the weekend. 

If you are in a position to help at all please do ... This little guy deserves it. I posted a link below and as I said, if you are in a position to help it would go a long way."

http://www.gofundme.com/LubbockBacksLuke

Here are some images of people who jumped in to try and help out:

So, how did this turn out? 

The fundraising is still in progress, but so far over 440 people have helped raise over $62,000 in just four days!  You can see the update on the Gofundme page by clicking here.

This is just one example. There are thousands of others out there that show how people will band together to lend a hand in tough times. 

We don't know if we will have to face another major financial crisis some day or not. But if we do, just keep in mind that there are many good people out there who will work on trying to solve whatever problems might arise. There are people who do care. Sometimes I think they get overlooked in the rush to focus on those who prefer to cause problems rather than trying to help solve them.

Update 12-20-15: Luke is slowly but surely making progress and the community helped out with $85,000 in donations so far.