When you hear it uttered, not just as a slogan, it is usually because someone wants someone else to do something.
"Do something!"
Or, you could be the one doing something.
In Chapel Hill last week, two citizens did something to help a baby in a hot car. Why anyone would leave a baby in a car is beyond me, but we know it happens, both intentionally and unintentionally. It has been a year of Good Samaritans in Chapel Hill, first with the Shelton brothers thwarting that kidnapping downtown, and now these bystanders who luckily saw the baby.
In South Carolina, no one did anything last week to prevent a woman from allegedly killing her two toddlers before pushing her car into the water. I find it hard to believe there were no warning signs at all that this mother could break and do such a thing. Just as I find it hard to believe that no one knew what could have happened to little Tegan Skiba in Johnston County. Her mother was charged with leaving her own daughter in the care of a man who had already shown himself to be abusive. The mother was culpable, of course, but didn't anyone, anywhere, know that this little girl was being abused? If someone's safety is a factor, it is darn well your business to intervene.
If only they had done something.
I don't like the phrase "if only" because it is usually used after the fact. If only someone had asked him if he was safe at home. If only someone had reached out to her before she committed suicide. If only someone had kept that gun locked up. If only someone had seen what was happening. If only someone had stopped it. If only.
We don't always hear about the close calls like the baby in the car or the woman who survived a kidnapping attempt in Chapel Hill this year. Some close calls aren't publicized with police action. Some close calls happen when someone offers a kind word, a safe haven or even a new set of clothes or a bookbag of school supplies. It's a different kind of close call. The kind of action that makes someone's life better instead of worse.
When you give of yourself, when you step up to do something, you are doing something good. One of my readers called me this week and said that she liked how I write about "what's right is right." Well, here's another example of that. Helping kids is the right thing to do. You can say that parents should do well for their children, but that isn't always going to happen. That means stopping abuse and it also means providing for our young ones.
This month I received several notices about local churches holding back to school events where they give out free school supplies and have a party with free haircuts, too. Rather than just preaching about helping your neighbor, places of worship like Orange Grove Missionary Baptist Church on East End Avenue did something. They practiced what they preached. Church members gathered items to send kids off to school right.
Doing something doesn't always have to be a huge action-packed event like saving a life, though those are vital. Doing something can be buying a notebook or children's clothing and giving them to someone who needs them.
The more people who come forward and do something, the less often we'll be saying "if only" after something terrible happens. We can make grand gestures and we can make little differences. Both are important. So please, if you see a need or a chance to make someone's life better, or even save it -- don't tell someone else to do something. Do it yourself.
Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan may be reached at dvaughan@heraldsun.com or 419-6563.
